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THE 


HOME  OF  GOD'S  PEOPLE. 


Rev.  WILLIAM   L.  GAGE, 

Editor  and  Translntor  of  "Ritter's  Palestine,"  "  Tischemlorf 's  Origin  of  the  Gospeti,"  e*c.,  etc., 

and  Author  of  "  Life  of  Carl  Kilter,"  ''  Modern  Historical  Atliis,"  "  Lowell  Lectures 

on  Palestine,"  "  Studies  in  Bible  Lands,"  &c.,  &c. 


FULLY   ILLUSTRATED    WITH 


Nearly  One  Hundred  and  Seventy-Five  Engravings, 

ALSO, 

ACCURATE    AND    AUTHENTIC    MAPS. 


PUBLISHED     BY     SUBSCRIPTION,     ONLY. 


DUSTIN,  GTLMAN,  &  CO.,  HARTFORD,  CONN. 

QUEEN"  CITY  rUUMSHING  COMPANY,    CINCINNATI,  OIUO-M    A.  PARKER  &  CO., 
CHICAGO,  ILL  -F   A.  HUTCHINSON  &  CO  ,  ST.  LOUIS,  MO. 

1874. 


^':;iC-%^ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1873,  by 

DUSTIN,  OILMAN  &  CO., 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


TO 
THOSE  ilANY 
FRIENDS    IN    FOR- 
EIGN LANDS,  WHO   HAVE 
ASSISTED    ME   WITH    THEIR 
COUNSEL,    OR    LIGHTENED    MY    LABORS 
WITH   THEIR   FRIENDSHIP,  WHILE  COLLECTING 
THE    MATERIALS    FOR    THIS   AND    KIN- 
DRED    WORKS,     THIS     VOLUME 
IS     GRATEFULLY     DEDI- 
CATED,   BY    THE 

AUTHOR. 

*   * 
■  * 


PREFACE. 


There  is  a  certain  mystery  which  rests  upon  the 
land  where  those  writings  were  indited  which  we  all 
agree  in  calling  Sacred.  The  Book  which  records  the 
development  of  the  religious  thought  of  those  who 
have  gained  the  clearest  insight  into  the  character  of 
God,  is  a  book  of  mystery,  and  its  secrets  are  still  the 
wonder  and  the  controversy  of  the  world.  Egypt,  Sinai 
and  Palestine  share  that  mystery;  they  are  still  the 
regions  over  which  a  halo,  brighter  than  romance,  still 
hovers,  and  the  common,  garish  light  of  nineteenth 
century  reality  has  not  yet  banished  the  charm  with 
which  the  imagination  lingers  on  what  we  call,  with  a 
deeper  meaning  than  we  know,  the  Holy  Land. 

I  may  be  permitted  to  confess  to  the  reader  that  I 
have  put  much  honest  labor  into  this  work,  and  now 
give  it  to  the  public  as  the  ripened  result  of  many 
years'  study.  Amid  the  cares  of  an  active  pastorship, 
my  recreation  has  long  been  in  the  field  of  sacred 
geography  and  history;  a  protracted  residence  abroad 
has  allowed  me  to  accumulate  much  material,  and  the 
public  has  already  received  the  results  in  the  large 


PREFACE.  V 

work  of  Ritter,  translated  from  the  German,  and  edited 
with  conscientious  care. 

The  key  note  of  this  book  may  be  said  to  be  Hitter's 
great  and  dominating  idea  of  the  sisterhood,  or  rather 
twinship  of  geography  and  history.  Though  the  pages 
will  be  seen  to  have  largely  a  historical  character,  and 
at  first  glance  will  appear  to  be  a  repetition  of  what 
other  pens  have  done,  yet  a  more  careful  scrutiny  will 
show  that  the  old  story  is  told  afresh  mainly  for  the 
purpose  of  casting  upon  it  the  side  light  of  sacred 
geography.  The  Land  of  the  Bible  is  the  best  com- 
mentator on  the  Bible  itself,  and  he  alone  can  enter 
into  an  understanding  of  Holy  Writ  who  is  willing  to 
read  the  handwriting  of  God  on  those  rocks  and  hills 
and  plains  where  he  mirrored  his  own  thought,  and 
whose  physical  features  have  become  the  symbols  of 

his  own  truth. 

W.  L.  Gage. 


THE  HOME  OF  GOD'S  PEOPLE. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


P»6e. 

1.  The  Modern  City  of  Okfa, 25 

2.  Bethel, 29 

3.  The  Expulsion  of  Hagar, .  39 

4.  Mosque  at  Hebron,  (Machpelah),  and  Part  of  the  Town, 43 

5.  River  Jabbok, 47 

6.  Sdccoth, 49 

7.  Jacob's  Well, 51 

8.  Presentation  of  Moses  to  Pharaoh, 55 

9.  The  Sphinx  and  Pvkamids  of  Memphis, 57 

10.  The  Dead  Sea, 65 

11.  Marah  (Ain  Amara,  The  Bitter  Wells), 71 

12.  Engraved  Rocks  in  the  Ouadi  Mokattab, 75 

13.  Convent  of  St.  Catharine,  Mt.  Sinai, 81 

14.  Fac  Simile  of  Sinaitic  Manuscript, 84 

15.  Do.        do.        do.  do 85 

16.  Do.        do.        do.  do 86 

17.  Fragment  of  Egyptian  Manuscript, 87 

18.  Chapel  of  Moses  upon  the  Supposed  Site  of  the  Burning  Bush,     89 

19.  Mount  Hor, 96 

20.  Stone  Door  of  an  Ancient  House, 103 

21.  Ruins  of  a  Temple  at  Kennath, 105 

22.  Mount  Hermon  from  near  Tiberias, 108 

23.  Mountains  of  Moab, Ill 

24.  Ain  Sultan, 114 

25.  View  of  the  Jordan  Valley, 117 

26.  Aqueduct  and  Part  of  the  Town  of  Hammath, 119 

27.  View  on  the  Road  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho, 127 

28.  Ancient  Battering  Ram, 133 

29.  Ancient  Axes, 133 

30.  Ancient  Battle-axes,  Pole-axe,  Maces  and  Club, 133 

31.  Tortoise  Shield, 134 

32.  Lake  Merom  from  the  South, 137 

33.  Beersheba, 142 

34.  C.ESAREA, 147 

35.  Valley  and  Town  of  Nablous,  (Ancient  Sheechem), 153 

36.  Akka,  or  Acco,  Ancient  Accho,  Ptolemais, 159 

37.  Ancient  Swords  and  Daggers, 164 


VIII  LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

38.  Jezreel,   171 

89.  Scene  in  the  Mountains  of  Gilead, 179 

40.  Gaza, 185 

41.  Gods  of  Wood, 188 

42.  Jerusalem  fkom  the  Mount  of  Olives, 191 

43.  Easteun  Woman  with  Veil, 194 

44.  Do.           do.              do 195 

45.  Ploughing,  Hoeing  and  Sowing, 196 

46.  Wueat  Field  with  Olives, 196 

47.  Women  Gkinding  Gkain, 196 

48.  Ancient  IIoes, 196 

49.  Gkanaky 196 

50.  AsiiDOD,    202 

51.  Egyptian  Asses  saddled.  Ancient, 207 

52.  Egyptian  Asses  saddled,  Modern, 207 

53.  Rachel's  Tomb, 209 

54.  Warrior  with  Helmet  and  Shield, 212 

55.  Ancient  Harps,  , 215 

56.  Ancient  Harp, 215 

57.  Ancient  Signet  Rings, 215 

58.  Tar,  "  Timbrel  or  Tabret," 215 

59.  Ancient  Sheepfold, 215 

60.  Verdure  of  Engedi, 222 

61.  The  so-called  Golden  Gate  of  Jerusalem, 226 

62.  River  Jordan  with  Jacob's   Bridge, 227 

63.  Interior  of  Golden  Gate,    228 

64.  Hills  and  Walls  of  Jerusalem,    231 

65.  Castle  of  David  and  Jaffa  Gate, 235 

66.  The  Grand  Range  of  Lebanon, 240 

67.  Petra, 251 

68.  The  Summit  of  Mt.  Hor, 261 

69.  Amman,  General  View,  with   Stream  and  Bridge, 263 

70.  AY  ELL    OF  JOAB, 265 

71.  Ancient  War, 269 

72.  Oriental  Gate,  or  Door, 273 

73.  Gorge  of  the  Kidron,  275 

74.  Different  Modes  of  Obeisance, 277 

75.  Do.    do.    do.    do 278 

76.  Absalom's  Tomb, 285 

77.  Ancient  Coins, 289 

78.  Shekels, 290 

79.  Pieces  of  Silver, 291 

80.  Mosque  of  Omar,  or  Dome  of  the  Rock, 293 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS.  IX 

Page. 

81.  Sepulchral  Monvments  near  Sidon, 301 

82.  Table  of  Shew  Bread, 304 

83.  Golden  Candlestick, 305 

84.  Temple  at  Baalbec, 306 

85.  Altar  of  Burnt  Offering, 307 

86.  Pools  of  Soloman, 309 

87.  Hyssop, • ^^^ 

88.  Defile  in  Idum.ea,  in  the  Road  from  Palestine  to  Egypt,  ....  320 

89.  Altar  of  Incense, 325 

90.  Head  and  whole  Figure  of  Phcenician  Baal, 329 

91.  Mount  Carmel  from  the  North,  with  the  Village  of  Haifa,  .  834 

92.  Valley  of  Jehoshaphat, 336 

93.  Ancient  Chariot, 345 

94.  Suspended  Battering  Ram, 347 

95.  Mount  Ararat, 351 

96.  Sebastieh,  the  Ancient  Samaria, 353 

97.  Sacked  Symbolic  Tree  of  the  Assyrians, 861 

From  Lord  Aberdeen's  Biackstone.  Fcrgusson's  J^Tineveh  and  Persopolis. 

98.  Assyrian  Knives,   .  = 361 

From  Originals  in  British  Museum. 

99.  Ancient  Assyrian  Lamps  in  the  British  Museum, 361 

100.  Sennacherib  on  his  Throne  before  Lachish, 361 

101.  Impressions  of  the  Signets  of  the  Kings  of  Assyria  and  Egypt, 

{Original  Size,) 361 

102.  Roman  As, 862 

103.  Roman  and  Barbarian  Combat, 364 

104.  Ancient  Dials,    366 

105.  Armies  Approaching  Jerusalem, 367 

106.  The  Dial  of  Ahaz 369 

107.  TojiBS  OF  the  Kings  of  Judah,  in  the  Valleys  of  Jehoshaphat,  .  .  371 

108.  Ancient  Persian  Spears  and  Shields, 372 

109.  Heavy  armed  Warrior, 373 

From  Hope's  Ckistumes  of  the  .Ancients. 

110.  Persian  Sword,  or  Acinaces, *l 373 

111.  Roman  Slinger, 373 

From  Columns  of  Jlntonius. 

112.  Ancient  Cuirasses, 373 

From  Wilkinson. 

113.  Ancient  Cuirass, 373 

114.  Ancient  Records, 374 

115.  Clog  Almanac, 375 

116.  Ancient  Persian  Combat, 377 

117.  Street  in  Jerusalem, 378 

118.  Ancient  Armor.     Persian  Horseman, 879 

119.  View  of  the  Kasr, 380 


X  LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

P«ge. 

120.  Ancient  Entertainment,  showing  toe  form  of  the  Chairs, 383 

121.  Reputed  Tomb  of  Estiier  and  Mordecai, 385 

122.  Tomb  of  Cyrus  at  Murg-Aub, 387 

123.  Ancient  Bottles, 391 

124.  Ancient  Cups, 391 

125.  Ancient  Cups, 391 

126.  East  End  of  South  Wall, 393 

127.  Reputed  Tomb  of  Ezra  on  the  Banks  of  the  Tigris, 397 

128.  Brick  Pyramid  of  Taioum, 402 

129.  Oriental  Migration,   404 

130.  Plain  and  Obelisk  of  Heliopolis,  or  On, 417 

131.  Antakia  the  Modern  Representation  of  Antioch, 421 

132.  Bethlehem, 433 

133.  Cave  of  the  Nativity 435 

134.  Grotto  of  the  Nativity, 439 

185.  Vale  and  City  of  Nazareth, 445 

136.  Via  Dolorosa, — Jerusalem  with  the  Arch  of  Ecce  Homo,   .  .  .  452 

137.  Mount  of  Olives, 455 

138.  Bethany, 457 

139.  The  Holy  Sepulchre, 461 

140.  Jews'  Place  of  Wailing, 465 

141.  All  that  remains  op  Capernaum 467 

142.  Pool  of  Bethesda, 469 

143.  Ruins  of  the  Palace  of  the  Caesars, 471 

144.  Pool  of  Siloam, 473 

145.  Temple  of  Birs-Nimrud — Babel,  (Tower  of  Tongues), 483 

146.  "  No,"  Thebes,    485 

147..  Ruins  of  an  Egyptian  City,    487 

148.  Damascus 499 

149.  Bedouin  Encampment, 502 

150.  View  of  old  Olive  Trees  in  Gethsemane, 509 

151.  Cedars  of  Lebanon, 511 

152.  Abraham's  Oak  near  Hebron,    514 

153.  Lake  op  Tiberias,  from  the  Baths, 521 

154.  Modern  Laida  or  Sidon, 524 

155.  St.  Paul's  Bay,  Malta, 535 

156.  Corinth, 545 

157.  Patmos, 551 

MAPS. 

158.  Palestine  before  the  Conquest, 32 

159.  The  Environs  of  Jerusalem, 229 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  HAUNTS  AND  WANDERINGS  OF  ABRAHAM. 

Obscurity  of  the  Opening  Chapters  of  the  Bible — Not  the  Men  and  "Women 
of  To-day — Clearing  Up — Abraliam  a  Distinct  Character — Ur  of  the  Chal- 
dees — Ur  now  a  Missionary  Station  of  the  American  Board — Abraham 
Journeys  to  Haran — Goes  Onward  to  Damascus — Next  Appears  at  the 
smiling  Plain  of  Shechem — Then  at  the  Hallowed  Shrine  of  Bethel — 
Famines,  common  in  those  days — Abraham,  the  Rich  Man,  divides  the 
whole  country  with  Lot — ^Abraham  gets  after  all  the  Best  of  the  Bargain 
— Invasion  of  the  "Kings  of  the  East" — Dead  Sea  Described — Abra- 
ham's Victory  over  the  Chieftains  from  the  Plains  of  Shinar, .....    23 

CHAPTER  II. 

JACOB  AND  THE  "SOUTH  COUNTRY." 

Change  m  the  Character  of  the  Country — Hills  give  place  to  Rolling  Land 
— Grass  Appears — This  Land  the  Last  Resting-place  of  Abraham  and  the 
Home  of  Isaac — This  Region  not  yet  Thoroughly  Explored — Wells  still 
a  Subject  of  Contention — The  Real  Home  of  the  Patriarchs  —  Hagar — 
Hebron  and  the  Cave  of  Machpelah — Prince  of  Wales'  Examination  of  It 
• — Jacob's  Embalmed  Body  probably  there  now — Jacob's  Wanderings  "  in 
Search  of  a  Wife  " — His  Return  to  Palestine — Shechem — The  Death  and 
Burial  place  of  Rachel, 37 

CHAPTER   III. 

EGYPT,  AND  THE  PASSAGE  OF  THE  RED  SEA. 

Egypt  the  Mother  of  Civilization — Sesostris — The  Land  of  Goshen — Its 
Boundaries — Occupations  of  the  Hebrew  Slaves — The  Treasure-cities — 
Succoth— Etham  — The  Natural  Route  of  the  Israelites— Why  they 
made  their  Detour — The  Head  of  the  Red  Sea — The  Places  near  it — 


xn  CONTENTS. 

PAOS. 

The  Crossing  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez — Dr.  Bonar  and  Dr.  Robinson  on  the 
Miracle  wrought  there, 54 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  SINAI  PENINSULA. 

A  Toilful  Piljrriniage — Physical  Aspect  of  the  "  Wilderness  " — The  Triangle 
of  Land — llutj;ged  Sublimity  of  Nature — A  Great  Mass  of  Molten  Rock 
Suddenly  Cooled— Tlie  Till  Plateau— Its  Wall  of  Mountains— The  Dead 
Sea  Gorge — Captain  Allen's  Theory — The  Results  of  Modern  Science — 
A  Land  Without  a  History — Unchanged  Aspect — Want  of  Vegetation 
^A  Land  of  Pilgrims — Literature  of  the  Desert — The  Bitter  Springs  of 
Marah — The  Sweet  Springs  of  Elini — The  "  Goodly  "  Vale — A  Tediou? 
Climb — A  Desolate  Plain — Desert  of  Sin — The  One  Beautiful  Valley  of 
the  Whole  Region — Serb.T.1,  the  Mountain  of  Mystery — The  Written 
Characters  on  the  Rock — Approach  to  Sinai, 63 

CHAPTER  V. 

MOUNT  SINAI,  AND  THE  YEARS  OF  WANDERING. 

The  Broad,  Curved  Valley  called  Wady  Sheikh— Pass  of  the  Winds— The 
Plain  before  Sinai  a  Lofty,  Craggy  Pile— A  Wall  of  Rock — Form  and 
Structure  of  the  Mountain — Discovery  of  the  Sinaitic  Manuscript  of  the 
New  Testament  by  Prof  Tischendorf — The  Convent  of  the  Forty — Con- 
vent of  St.  Catharine — Scene  of  the  Israelites'  Encampment — Moses' 
Ascent — The  Wilderness  of  Sinai — What  Grows  there — Silence  of  the 
Desert — Effect  of  a  Thunder-storm — Elijah's  Chapel — View  from  Sinai 
— The  Stay  of  the  Israelites  around  the  Mount — Their  Journey  North- 
ward— The  Spies — Kadesh  Barnea — Scene  of  the  First  Contest — Region 
of  the  Edomites — Aaron's  Burial-place — Route  of  the  Spies — Preliminary 
Survey  of  Palestine — Petra — Approach  to  the  "  Promised  Land,"  ...    79 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  TRANS-JORDANIC  DISTRICT. 

A  New  Field— Recapitulation — The  Ancient  Tribes — The  Moabites  and 
the  Ammonites — Moab  and  its  Divisions — A  Country  Little  Explored — 
Who  have  gone  through  it — Hindrances  made  by  the  Savage  Bedouins 
—  Victory  over  "  Sihon,  King  of  Amorites  " — Rampage  Northward  into 
Og's  Region — Porter's  Researches — The  Houses  of  Bashan — Argob  and 
its  Threescore  Cities — Territory  Given  to  Reuben — To  Gad — To  Half- 
Manassah — Hermon  and  its  Various  Names — The  Midianites — Balaam 
and  the  Scene  of  His  Vision — The  Theoretical  Limits  of  Palestine — 
Prominent  Objects  in  the  Landscape — Scene  of  Moses'  Death — His  Allot- 
ment of  the  "  Promised  Land," 100 


CONTENTS.  xiii 


CHAPTER   VII. 

PASSAGE  OF  THE  JORDAN,  AND  BEGINNING  OF  THE 
CONQUEST. 

PAQI. 

Fording  the  Jordan — Depth  in  Summer — In  Spring — In  Winter — Melting 
Snows  of  Hermon — Wlien  the  Israelites  Crossed — Harvest  Season — No 
Bridges  then  over  the  Jordan — Comparison  with  our  American  Rivers — 
Gilgal,  the  Place  of  the  First  Encampment — What  Remains  of  It — Ruins 
of  Jericho — Palms  and  Roses  of  that  City — Vices  of  the  Arabs  There — 
The  Man  who  Fell  among  Thieves — Natural  Highway  up  to  the  Moun- 
tains— Route  from  Jericho  to  Ai — Taking  of  Ai — Ebal  and  Gerizim — 
Setting  Up  of  the  Law — Visit  of  the  Gibeonites — Their  Disguise — The 
Five  Kings — Joshua  as  a  Military  Leader — Battle  of  Beth-horon — The 
Scene  of  the  Contest — Slaughter  of  the  Kings- — "  Sun,  Stand  Still " — 
The  Great  Miracle— Battle  of  Hazor, -  122 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

ALLOTMENT  AMONG  THE  TWELVE  TRIBES. 

Full  Description  of  the  Allotment  in  the  Bible — Retention  of  the  Ancient 
Names  in  the  Mouth  of  the  Arabs — Robinson  and  Smith's  Discoveries —  . 
The  Three  Tribes  East  of  the  Jordan,  Reuben,  Gad,  and  Half-Manasseh 
— The  Beautiful  Land  of  Bashan — The  Inequalities  in  Western  Palestine 
in  Respect  to  Soil — A  Wonderful  System  of  Compensations — Only  One 
Tribe  Fares  Badlj^ — Territory  of  Judah — Its  Advantages — Benjamin — 
Its  Sacred  Localities — Dan — Its  Narrowness  and  Subsequent  Emigration 
— Ephraim — Manasseh,  Issachar,  and  Zebulon — The  Cities  of  Refuge — 
Moses'  Knowledge  of  the  Land — Site  of  Shiloh  and  its  Discovery  by 
Robinson, 139 

CHAPTER   IX. 

TROUBLOUS  DAYS  — THE  JUDGES  — DEBORAH.  . 

The  Subjugation  not  Perfect  as  Yet — Adonibezek — His  Cruelties — Some 
very  Strong  Cities  which  had  not  been  Taken — A  Touch  of  Humor — 
The  Five  Philistine  Cities — Gath  not  to  be  found — Who  were  the  Canaan- 
ites? — Great  Invasion  from  the  East — The  First  of  the  Judges — The 
Second  Judge — The  Scene  Changes  to  the  Jordan — Ehud  and  Eglon — 
The  Great  Battle  of  Deborah — Description  of  the  Plain  of  Jezreel — The 
Battle  Painted — Heroism  of  Deborah — Geographical  Localities  Visible  at 
the  Present  Time — The  Victory — Reflections, 157 


XIV  .  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   X. 

GIDEON  AND  HIS  GREAT  DELIVERANCE. 

PAOI. 

A  DiflScult  Theme — Some  Localities  Unknown — Who  were  the  Midianite 
,  Invaders? — The  Bedouin  of  Tliat  Day — Their  Costume  and  Manners — 
Where  They  Crossed  the  Jordan — Tiie  Plain  of  Esdraelon — Its  Physical 
Conformation — The  Order  of  the  Midianite  Invasion — Wlio  Entered  into 
the  Alliance  Against  Them — The  Character  of  Gideon — His  Call  as  a 
Deliverer — His  Brothers — The  "Spring  of  Trembling" — The  Sifting  of 
His  Men — How  he  got  rid  of  the  Cowards — The  Night  Attack — The 
Victory — The  Pursuit  into  the  High  Lands  East  of  the  Jordan — Death  of 
the  "Raven"  and  the  "Wolf" — Change  in  Gideon's  Character,  ....  168 

CHAPTER  XI. 

ABIMELECH  THE  TYRANT  AND  JEPHTHAH  THE  FREE- 
BOOTER. 

A  Tragic  Tale — The  Fertile  Vale  of  Shechem — Its  Conformation  and  An- 
cient Landmarks —  The  Scene  of  Jotham's  Parable  —  Other  Important 
Sites — Jephthah's  Home  East  of  the  Jordan — A  Wild,  Rugged  Character 
— How  Jephthah  Resembles  Elijah  —  The  Wildest  of  the  Arabs — The 
First  Movement  of  the  Freebooter — The  Territory  of  Amnion — The  Crisis 
for  which  Jephthah  was  Raised  Up — The  Brief  Campaign  Against  the  Am- 
monites— The  Scene  of  the  World  famous  Vow — The  Daughter's  Fate,  .  176 

CHAPTER   Xn. 

SAMSON  THE  GREAT  HUMORIST. 

Scene  Transferred  to  the  Hill-Country  of  Dan — Samson  a  Danite — Char- 
acter of  the  Country  where  he  was  Reared — The  Philistines  and  their 
Domain — Whence  They  Came — IIow  They  Surpassed  the  Israelites  in 
Arts — The  Gradual  Increase  of  the  Philistines'  Power — Their  Use  of 
Horses  and  Chariots — The  Rudeness  of  the  Arts  of  War  Among  the 
Israelites — The  Name  Palestine  Derived  from  Philistine  —  The  Chief 
Cities — Their  Ruins  at  the  Present  Day — Ashkelon,  Ekron,  Ashdod — 
The  Physical  Character  of  the  Pliilistine  Territory, 182 

CHAPTER  XIH. 

MICAH  AND  THE  LEVITE— THE  WAR  OF  EXTERMINA- 
TION ON  BENJAMIN  — THE  PASTORAL  OF  RUTH. 

The  Close  of  the  Book  of  Judges — The  Scene  of  Sacred  Story  Moves  to 
the  Neighborhood  of  Jerusalem  and  then  to  the  Extreme  North  of  Pal- 


CONTENTS.  XV 

PAOI. 

estine  —  Tell  el  Kadi,  the  Mound  of  the  Judge  —  The  Profuse  Jordan 
Spring  Found  There— Its  Waters,  Whence  Obtained — The  Course  Taken 
by  the  Spies — Their  Report — The  Capture  of  Laish  and  its  Fate — Tris- 
tam's  Account  of  the  Conquered  Region — The  Great  War  of  Extermina- 
tion— The  Site  of  Gibeali — Mizpeh,  Whence  Named — The  Old  and  the 
New  Place  which  Bore  That  Name — The  Sacredness  of  Mizpeh — The 
Battle  which  Surged  Around  that  Hallowed  Place — The  Course  of  the 
Battle— The  Structure  and  Contents  of  the  Book  of  Ruth, 18T 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

SAMUEL  THE  PRINCELY. 

The  First  Book  of  Samuel  a  Real  Continuation  of  Judges — Samuel  a  True 
Member  of  the  Line  of  Men  who  Judged  Israel — Contrast  Between  Sam- 
eon  and  Samuel — The  Religious  Degeneracy  of  tiie  Hebrews — The  Pro- 
fligacy of  Eli's  Sons  a  Symptom  of  the  Age — The  First  Battle  With  the 
Philistines — Victory  at  Eben-ezer — The  Ark  and  its  Use  During  the  Bat- 
tle—The Death  of  Hophni  and  Phinehas— Its  Effect  on  Eli— The  Ark 
Passes  Into  the  Hands  of  the  Philistines — They  get  Rid  of  It — Another 
Battle  With  the  Philistines, 198 

CHAPTER   XV. 

FAILURE   OF   THE   COMMONWEALTH— CHOICE  OF  A 
KING— SAUL. 

Moses'  Policy  Precluded  Forever  the  Establishing  of  a  King  Over  the 
Jews — Yet  he  Feared  a  Degeneracy  which  should  sometime  Result  in 
Having  a  King — Provision  Made  to  This  End — Failure  of  the  Common- 
wealth— Encroachment  of  the  Philistines  on  the  West — Of  Arab  Barbari- 
ans on  the  East — No  Smith  in  Israel — All  Repairing  of  Tools  Done  by 
the  Philistines — Feelings  of  Weakness — Saul's  Search  for  his  Asses — 
Geograpliicjil  Difficulties — Unsolved  Questions  of  Location — Across  the 
Jordan  to  Jabesh-gilead — Its  Deliverance — Saul's  Wonderful  Alacrity — 
The  Battle  at  Michmash  —  Other  Advantages  which  Followed  —  The 
Slaughter  of  Agag — The  Rejection  of  Sard, 204 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

DAVID   AND   SAUL. 

The  Anointing  of  David — Not  Followed  by  his  Immediate  Accession  to 
Power — David  had  a  Reputation  Even  in  His  Youth — The  Rare  Qualities 
Which  a  Sheplierd  was  Compelled  to  Have — David's  Additional  Accom- 
plishments— His  Exploits — The  Psalms  Written  During  his  Shepherd 
Life — Saul's  Madness — Similar  in  Ciiaracter  to  That  of  Theodore  the  Late 
Emperor  of  Abyssinia — The  Contest  With  Goliath — The  Geographical 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

PAOI. 

Situation— The  Friendship  With  Jonathan— David  Hunted  Before  Saul 
— Tli3  Refuge  Places  Where  we  Find  Ilim— He  Even  Seeks  Shelter 
Among  the  Philistines— The  Cave  of  Adullam—Moab— Return  to  hia 
Native  Heath  — Keilah  and  its  Deliverance— Recent  Identifications  of 
David's  Haunts  — Physical  Character  of  Southern  Palestine  — David's 
Wild,  Wretched,  Wander- Years— Grand  Attack  on  Saul— The  Philistines 
at  Jezrcel — The  Death  of  Saul  and  Jonathan, 214 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

DAVID  AS  KING— CONQUEST   OF  JERUSALEM— ALLI- 
ANCE WITH  PHCENICIA. 

The  Career  and  Misfortunes  of  Saul's  Son  —  Site  of  Mahanaim  — The 
Princely  Abner— A  State  of  Anarchy  and  Civil  War— David  at  Hebron 
—The  Region  Around  that  City— The  Change  of  the  Capital— The  Na^ 
ural  Seat  of  Government  was  at  Shechem— Zion — Millo — Tiie  City  of 
David— Insignificant  Size  of  the  Jerusalem  of  that  Day— Great  War 
with  the  Philistines— A  Speedy  and  Brilliant  Campaign — David's  False 
Policy  Regarding  Philistia — The  Alliance  with  the  "Phoenicians  and  What 
it  Meant — The  Northern  Tribes  and  their  Relations  with  Phoenicia — 
David's  Palace, 225 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

REMOVAL  OF  THE  ARK— MILITARY  CONQUESTS. 

The  Place  where  the  Ark  had  Lain  for  Twenty  Years — Its  Removal  to 
Gibeah— The  Pomp  of  that  Removal— The  Twenty-fourth  Psalm— The 
Acme  of  David's  Career — David's  Conquests — His  Eminence  as  a  Poet, 
Contrasted  with  his  Fame  as  a  Warrior — The  Extent  of  David's  Vic- 
tories— Campaign  Against  the  Philistines — Mistaken  Policy  Regarding 
Them — War  Against  Moab — Improvement  on  the  Old  Carnage  of  Joshua's 
Time — Wrong  to  Judge  the  Ethics  of  the  Old  Testament  by  those  of  the 
New — War  Against  the  King  of  Zobah — The  Riches  Gained  by  this 
Campaign — The  Frontier  Lines  as  now  Drawn  by  David — Master  now 
of  nearly  all  the  "Promised  Land" — Petra  and  its  Subjugation — Full 
Description  of  Petra  from  Ritter — Subjugation  of  Ammon— Size  of  Pales- 
tine Contrasted  with  that  of  Other  Great  Nations  of  that  Age,     ....  234 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

DAVID'S  SIN— ABSALOM'S  REVOLT. 

The  Fall  of  David — A  Turning-point  in  His  Life — Bathsheba  Descried  from 
the  Palace — Her  Husband  a  Foreigner — Uriah's  Wonderful  Fidelity — 
David's  Sin  must  not  be  Measured  by  the  Standard  of  Our  Day — The 
Fifty-first  Psalm — An  Autobiographical  Confession — David's  Star  on  the 


CONTENTS.  Xvii 

PAOB. 

Wane — The  Story  of  Absalom  Minutely  Told  in  the  Bible — Stanley's 
Account — Absalom's  Beauty — Eastern  Family  Customs — David's  Love 
for  Absalom — The  Flight  of  the  King — The  Insults  which  were  Offered 
Him — Ahithopel's  Counsel — The  Psalms  which  Grew  Out  of  this  Event 
— David  in  Security  East  of  the  Jordan — Death  of  Absalom — Effect  on 
the  King — David's  Return, 267 

CHAPTER  XX. 

CLOSING  EVENTS  OF  DAVID'S  REIGN— PREPARATIONS 
FOR   THE   TEMPLE. 

Two  Minor  Rebellions — David  Falls  into  the  Usual  Ways  of  an  Oriental 
Despot — Introduction  of  a  Strict  Military  Discipline — Heavy  Taxes  Laid 
on  the  People — The  King's  Favorites — Popular  Discontent — Sheba's  Re- 
bellion— The  Conscription  under  Joab — The  Penalty  Laid  on  David — 
Pestilence  —  Its  Limits — The  Threshing-floor  of  Araunah — Mount  Mo- 
riah — David's  Purchase  —  Its  Consecration  to  a  New  Use  —  The  Pres- 
ent Aspect  of  that  Threshing-floor — Mosque  of  Omar — Access  to  it — 
The  Cavern  Beneath  the  Dome  —  Adonijah's  Rebellion  —  David  an 
Old  Man — The  Royal  Succession — Death  of  David — His  Burial — His 
Sepulchre, 287 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

SOLOMON'S  CHARACTER  AND  EARLIER  ACTS. 

The  Reign  of  Solomon  a  Contrast  to  that  of  David — Change  in  the  Public 
Tastes — Not  Much  of  Shepherd  Life  Left  in  the  Royal  Home — David's 
Palace  a  Simple  House  Judged  by  Solomon's  Standard — Not  Altogether 
an  Advance  from  David's  to  Solomon's  Time,  but  Rather  a  Fall — No  In- 
crease in  Faith  and  Purity — An  Epoch  of  Effeminacy — Solomon  a  Be- 
liever in  the  Visible — His  Life  Pitched  to  a  Much  Lower  Key  than  that 
of  David — The  Influences  Around  His  Youth — His  Crafty  and  Ambitious 
Mother  —  The  Realm  He  Found  Himself  Master  of — Its  Extent  and 
Boundary  Lines — His  First  Act  one  of  Destruction — His  Marriage  into 
the  Royal  House  of  Egypt — Mighty  Contrast  Between  Moses'  Time  and 
Solomon's — The  Effect  of  the  Egyptian  Alliance — The  Compact  with 
Hiram  of  Tyre — The  Officers  of  Solomon's  Household, 296 

CHAPTER   XXn. 

SOLOMON'S  ARCHITECTURAL  AND  OTHER  PUBLIC  WORKS. 

The  Erection  of  the  Temple — Planned  by  David,  but  Executed  by  Solomon 
—Relation  of  Its  Size  to  that  of  the  Tabernacle— The  Temple  About  tlie 
Size  of  a  Moderately  Large  Village  Church — Its  Divisions — Its  Sacred 
Vessels— The  Gold  Used  in  Its  Floor  and  Sides— The  Fame  of  the  Edifice 

2 


XVIU  CONTENTS. 

PAOl. 

— The  Foundation  Stones  Which  now  Remain — Their  Great  Size — Other 
Remains — Solomon's  Palace — Tlie  Armory — The  House  of  the  Forest  of 
Lebanon — The  Porch  of  Pillars — Magnificence  of  all  these  Structures — 
Adornment  of  the  Suburbs  of  Jerusalem — The  Pools  of  Solomon — The 
Aqueduct — The  Fortifications  Which  He  Built — Palmyra — Solomon's 
Drain  upon  the  Resources  of  his  Subjects — The  Establishment  of  a  Navy 
in  the  Red  Sea — ^Trade  With  Ophir — Where  was  Ophir — The  "  Ships 
of  Tdrshish" — The  Queen  of  Sheba — Solomon's  Administration — His 
Mistakes, 808 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE  TWO  KINGDOMS— REHOBOAM  AND  JEROBOAM. 

Change  at  this  Point  in  the  Character  of  Kings  and  Chronicles — Crisis  at 
the  Close  of  Solomon's  Reign — Rehoboam  Inherits  his  Father's  Love  of 
Splendor — His  Mother — The  Council  at  Shechem — An  Abrupt  Break — 
Jeroboam's  Origin — Resemblance  Between  Jeroboam  and  the  First  Na- 
poleon— His  Education  in  Egypt — His  Great  Deeds — An  Egyptian  Inva- 
sion— Artificiality  of  Rehoboam's  Character — Extent  of  the  Northern 
Compared  with  that  of  the  Southern  Kingdom — The  Isolation  of  the 
Southern  Kingdom  its  best  Safeguard — Jeroboam's  Want  of  Religion —  ^ 
He  Organizes  a  State  Religion  for  the  "Masses" — Philosophy  which 
Underlay  the  Worship  of  the  Bullock — The  Homage  Paid  to  Nature — 
Apotheosis  of  Men — No  Binding  Force  in  his  State  Religion — The  Doom 
of  the  House  of  Jeroboam — Tumults  and  Conspiracies — Zimri,  and  bis 
Seven  Days'  Reign — Omri — Abijah — Asa, 316 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

AHAB  AND  ELIJAH-JEHOSHAPHAT. 

Ahab  Surpasses  even  Jeroboam  in  Wickedness — His  Marriage  with  Jezebel 
— The  Worship  of  Foreign  Images  comes  in — The  Adoration  of  Baal  an 
Apotheosis  of  Power — Parallel  Between  the  Ideas  of  Ancient  Idolaters 
and  those  Current  Among  Ourselves — The  Brilliant  and  Festive  Charac- 
ter of  much  of  the  "Divine  Worship"  of  Our  Day — A  Falling  Away 
from  the  Grave  and  Earnest  Spirit  of  Moses  and  His  Successors — The 
Character  of  Jezebel — The  Rites  She  Introduced — Elijah  Starts,  as  it 
were  from  the  Ground — His  Training — His  Rough,  Wild,  Ungracious 
Ways — Contrast  Between  Eastern  and  Western  Palestine — Thunder  in 
a  Clear  Sky — Ahab's  First  Rebuke — Suddenness  of  Elijah's  Moves — 
Scenes  where  He  Appears — He  is  Always  at  Hand  when  Needed — Hopes 
that  he  would  Again  Visit  this  Earth — Mendelssohn's  Elijah — War  Be- 
tween Ahab  and  the  King  of  Syria — The  Reign  of  Ahab  Almost  Uncon- 
nected with  that  of  His  Contemporary,  Jehoshaphat — The  Great  Deeds 
of  the  Latter  King — He  Revives  the  Glories  of  Solomon, 328 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

ELISHA  AND  HIS  TIMES.     ' 

PASS. 

Contrast  Between  Elisha  and  Elijah  —  Mont  Blanc  and  Righi — Elisha  is 
Commonplace  Compared  with  his  Predecessor — Yet  a  Sweet  and  Benig- 
nant Character — Hazael  the  King  of  Syria — The  Call  of  Elisha — Strange 
Affection  of  Elijah  for  Elisha — The  Going  Up  from  Gilgal  to  Bethel — 
Elisha's  Short  Hair  and  the  Ridicule  it  Occasioned — "  Go  Up  Thou  Bald 
Head  "  Explained — A  Peaceful  Career — Elisha's  Great  Kindnesses — The 
Wonders  He  Wrought — Elisha  is  the  Master  Even  of  liings, 338 

CHAPTER   XXVI. 

JEHU  AND   HIS   REIGN. 

Encroaching  Power  of  Syria — Combination  Thus  Enforced  Between  the 
Kingdom  of  Israel  and  that  of  Judah — The  Syrians  Masters  of  Ramoth- 
gilead — The  City  Occupied  Temporarily  by  Jehu — Marriage  Alliances — 
Jehu  Appointed  King — The  Effect  of  the  Tidings  on  Him — Jehu  Hurries 
to  the  City  of  Jezreel — Riding  "  Like  Jehu  " — Treachery  at  Court — 
Jezebel  at  the  Capital — Death  of  the  Wicked  Queen — Jehu's  First  Acts 
—The  Infamy  of  Athaliah 343 

CHAPTER  XXVH. 

DOWNFALL    OF   ISRAEL. 

A  Line  of  Wicked  Kings — The  Old  Story  of  Jeroboam  Oft  Repeated — 
Jehu  Hardly  Better  than  the  Rest — Jeroboam  the  Second — A  Period  of 
Crisis  and  Calamities — Trouble  in  Syria — Rise  of  Assyria — The  Assyrian 
Kings — The  First  Invasion  and  the  Taking  of  the  People  of  the  North- 
ern Kingdom  Captive — The  Next  Blow  of  the  Assyrians — Palestine  as 
Viewed  by  the  Assyrians — Compared  with  Modern  European  Nations — 
A  Kingdom  Blotted  Out — Alleged  Modern  Discoveries  of  the  Ten  Tribes 
—The  Site  of  Nineveh— The  Prophets  of  the  Bible— Their  Function  as 
Preachers, 349 

CHAPTER  XXVIH. 

THE  ANNALS  OF  JUDAH— THE  GOOD  KING  HEZEKIAH. 

The  Annals  of  Judah  not  so  Remarkable  for  Wicked  Kings  as  those  of  Israel 
— Instances  of  Piety  on  the  Throne — Hezekiah  the  Most  Memorable  of 
them  all— His  Life  Narrated  in  Three  Different  Parts  of  the  Bible— The 
Book  of  Isaiah — The  Former  Assyrian  Invasions — The  One  which  Now 
Occurred — Sennacherib,  His  Character — The  Memorial  of  Him  at  Dog 
River,  Near  Beyrout — Other  Memorials  There — The  Assyrian  Army — 


XX  CONTENTS. 

PAOI. 

What  was  Expected — Isaiah's  Description  of  the  Approach — Topographi- 
cal Worth  of  His  Description — Siege  of  Lachish — Its  Ruins— Insulting 
Message  of  the  Assyrian  King  to  Hezekiah — Not  Difficult  to  Take  Jerusa- 
jem — No  Words  of  Submission — The  Plague  at  Night— Byron's  Lines— The 
Danger  Passed — A  Trace  of  this  Fragment  of  History  Found  in  Herodotus,  858 

CHAPTER   XXIX. 

THE  CAPTIVITY— NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 

Prevalence  in  Corruption  in  Jerusalem  and  Judah — Josiah  Raised  Up  to 
Stem  it — Brief  Reigns — Kings  Carried  into  Captivity  at  Babylon — Zede- 
kiah  has  his  Eyes  Put  Out — Battle  of  Megiddo — Rivalry  of  Babylon  and 
Egypt — The  Prophecy  of  Jeremiah — Discovery  of  the  Bible — The  Old 
Faith  a  Dead  Thing— The  Approach  of  the  Final  Siege  of  Jerusalem — 
The  Invasion  of  Nebuchadnezzar  —  The  Character  of  this  Monarch — 
Daniel — The  Ruins  of  Babylon — Nebuchadnezzar's  Insanity, 370 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

CONDITION  OF  THE  JEWS  DURING  THE  CAPTIVITY. 

The  Books  of  Daniel,  Ezekiel  and  Esther — The  Grandeur  of  the  Babylonian 
Monarch — Glimpses  of  the  Jewish  People — Their  Slavery — The  Book  of 
Esther  in  Special — A  Romantic  History — Why  that  Book  is  Found  in 
the  Bible — Objections  Considered — Xerxes  the  Great — Esther  Herself — 
The  Great  Providence  Displayed  in  the  Wiiole  History — Salvation  of  the 
Jewish  Nation — The  Feast  of  Purim  Still  Kept  by  the  Jews — Side  Lights 
Thrown  Upon  Jewish  History — Their  Prosperity  in  Babylon — Reluctant 
to  Return — Cyrus — His  Shrewdness  in  Allowing  the  Jews  to  Go  Back,     .  382 

CHAPTER   XXXI. 

THE  RETURN  FROM  BABYLON. 

The  First  Colony  or  Caravan  that  Returned — View  of  Jerusalem  from  the 
East — A  Scene  of  Desolation — Rebuilding  of  the  Temple — Hindrances 
Put  in  the  Way — The  Work  Sped — Bqok  of  Ezra — Nehemiah  Goes  Up 
with  Another  Colony — Ezra's  Work  of  Reformation — The  Effect  Felt  to 
the  Present  Day — Restoration  of  the  Wall — The  People  had  a  Mind  to 
Work — Gross  Evils  Ceased — Synagogue  Worship  Began — Ceasing  of 
Prophecy  —  The  Editing  of  the  Bible  —  Malachi — Restoration  of  the 
Sabbath — The  Reform  in  Marriage  and  the  Abolishment  of  Idolatry,  .    .  389 

CHAPTER   XXXII. 

PALESTINE  AFTER  THE  CAPTIVITY. 

Limitation  of  the  Church  Land  of  the  Hebrews  to  the  Hill-country  Around 
Jerusalem — New  and  Large  Relations — Great  Extent  of  the  New  Empire 
— By  Whom  it  had  been  Conquered — The  Policy  of  Cyrus — Egypt  the 


CONTENTS.  XXI 

PAOS. 

Ground-work  of  our  Conceptions — Eesemblances  between  the  Ruins  of 
Babylon  and  tliose  of  Egypt — Condition  of  Palestine  at  tliis  Time — The 
Character  of  the  Men  who  Returned  from  Babylon — What  Jerusalem  was 
still  to  the  Jews — The  Work  of  Nehemiah  told  in  Greater  Detail — The 
Men  who  Followed  Nehemiah  and  Their  Work, 398 

CHAPTER   XXXIII. 

THE  LAND  OF  THE  MACCABEES. 

The  Empire  of  Alexander  and  the  Place  of  Palestine  in  it — Changes  Going 
Forward — Alexandria  and  Egypt — The  Ptolemaic  Restorations — Exten- 
sion of  the  Syro-Grecian  Power — Course  of  Affairs  at  Jerusalem — The 
Fidelity  of  Judas  Maccabaeus — A  Period  of  Depression — Hopes  of  Finding 
the  Dispersed  Jews — The  Maccabean  Kingdom — The  Conquest  by  Rome,  414 

CHAPTER   XXXIV. 

THE  HOLY  PLACES  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
Difference  Between  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  in  Respect  to  Geograph- 
ical Importance — Holy  Places  Narrated — Bethlehem — Church  of  Helena 
—  Grotto  of  the  Nativity — Nazareth  —  Grotto  in  the  Latin  Convent  — 
Spring  Near  the  Greek  Church — House  at  Loretto — Jerusalem — Church 
of  the  Ascension — Tomb  of  the  Virgin — Garden  of  Gethsemane — The 
Ccenaculum — Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre — Rock  of  Golgotha — Diver- 
sity of  Sects— The  Holy  Fire— Travels  of  St.  Paul— Patmos, 432 

CHAPTER   XXXV. 

HOLY  PLACES  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT— (Continded.) 
Uniformity  of  Tradition  Regarding  the  Holy  Places — Growth  of  Legends 
in  Greece  and  Rome — Different  in  Jerusalem — The  Church  of  the  Ascen- 
sion— Its  Antiquity — The  Church  Built  by  Helena — The  Cave  at  Bethle- 
hem— The  Mount  of  Olives — Church  of  the  Virgin — Garden  of  Geth- 
semane— Mount  Zion — Mosque  of  the  Tomb  of  David — The  Ccenaculum 
— The  Site  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre — Hadrian's  Temple — Tomb  of  Adam — 
The  Wall  of  Herod — Golgotha — Chapel  of  the  "  Invention  of  the  Cross  " 
— Capernaum — The  Two  Canas — Bethesda — The  Trav-els  of  St.  Paul — 
The  Fastnesses  of  Asia  Minor — The  Holy  Places  of  Greece,     ....  451 

CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

PALESTINE,  ITS  ASPECT  AND  SITUATION. 

The  Highlands  of  Syria — Lebanon — The  Four  Rivers  of  Palestine — The 
Orontes — The  Litany — The  Barada — The  Jordan — Physical  Conforma- 
tion of  Palestine — Seclusion  from  the  rest  of  the  Ancient  World — Small- 
neae  and  Narrow  Territory — Central  Situation — ^A  Land  of  Ruins,  .    .    .  474 


XXU  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XXXVII. 

CLIMATE  AND  SCENERY  OF  PALESTINE. 

/AOB. 

The  Land  of  "Milk  and  Honey" — Destruction  of  Forests — Contrast  with 
the  Desert — Contrast  with  Assyria  and  Egypt — Variety  of  Structure  and 
Climate  —  Palestine  a  Mountainous  Country  —  Aram  —  The  Views  of 
Sacred  History — Wiiat  Abraham  Saw  from  Bethel — What  Balaam  Saw 
from  the  Hills  of  Moab — What  Moses  Saw  from  Pisgah — What  Jesus 
Saw  from  the  Mount  of  Temptation — The  Fenced  Cities — The  "High 
Places" — Political  Divisions  and  Conquests — Highlands  and  Lowlands — 
Distinction  Between  Palestine  and  Other  Half-civilized  Countries — Scen- 
ery of  Palestine, 488 

CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

NATURAL  PRODUCTIONS  AND  SOIL  OF  PALESTINE. 

Vegetation  of  Palestine  —  Trees  —  Olives  —  Cedars  of  Lebanon — Oaks  — 
Terebinths — Abraham's  Oak  —  Sacred  Trees — Oak  of  Moreh — Oak  of 
Mamre  —  Palms  —  Sycamores  —  Oleanders  —  The  Wells  of  Palestine  — 
Springs — Sepulchres — Caves — Legendary  Curiosities, 507 

CHAPTER   XXXIX. 

A  COMPARATIVE  SURVEY  OF  SYRIA. 

The  Three  Routes  into  Palestine  from  the  South  —  Insignificant  Size  of 
Palestine — Perpetuation  of  the  Bond  which  Binds  the  Jew  to  his  Former 
Home — Sacredness  of  Palestine  in  the  Eyes  of  the  Mahometans — Close 
Connection  between  the  Local  Geography  of  the  Holy  Land  and  the 
Mental  Characteristics  of  the  People — The  Philosophy  which  Underlies 
This  —  Syria,  how  Bounded  —  Palestine's  Position  in  Relation  to  the 
Ancient  World — Palestine  Viewed  in  Detail, 531 

CHAPTER  XL. 

COMPARATIVE  SURVEY  OF  SYRLA.— (Concluded.) 

The  Barriers  of  Palestine  Sharply  Defined — The  Country  Viewed  in  its 
Living  Relations — Direction  of  the  Mountain  Ranges — Their  Parallelism 
— The  Desert  Plateau — Caravan  Routes — The  Sea-coast  of  Syria — Want 
of  Good  Harbors — Diversity  Between  Eastern  and  Western  Sides  of  Pal- 
estine— The  Jordan  a  Unique  River — The  Ccele-Syrian  Valley — The 
Road  Lines  of  Palestine  Run  North  and  South — The  Knotted  Masses 
of  the  Lebanon — The  Streams  of  Palestine — Small  Brooks  of  the  South 
of  Palestine — Difference  Between  Phoenicia  and  Palestine — Resemblances 
Between  Syria  and  Persia — Terrace-culture, 543 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  HAUNTS  AND  WANDERINGS  OF  ABRAHAM. 


Obscurity  of  the  Opening  Chapters  of  the  Bible — Not  the  Men  and  Women  of 
To-day — Clearing  Up — Abraham  a  Distinct  Character — Ur  of  the  Chaldee« — 
Ur  now  a  Missionary  Station  of  the  American  Board — Abraham  Journeys  to 
Haran — Goes  Onward  to  Damascus — Next  Appears  at  tlie  smiling  Plain  of 
Shecheni — Then  at  the  Hallowed  Shrine  of  Bethel — Famines,  common  in 
those  days — Abraham,  the  Rich  Man,  divides  the  whole  country  with  Lot — 
Abraham  gets  after  all  the  Best  of  the  Bargain — Invasion  of  the  "  Kings  of 
the  East" — Dead  Sea  Described — Abraham's  Victory  over  the  Chieftains 
from  the  Plains  of  Shinar. 

[HE  Bible  carries  us  back  to  the  beginning  of  all 
things,  and  forward  to  the  end  of  all  things.  Yet, 
when  we  read  the  first  chapters  of  that  venerable 
volume,  we  feel  that  we  are  dealing  with  events  which  have 
not  the  definiteness  and  clearness  of  modern  history.  We 
seem  to  be  looking  at  a  landscape  partly  obscured  by  mist, 
and  the  figures  which  we  see  have  a  weird  outline,  and  do  not 
appear  like  the  men  and  women  of  to-day.  But  after  the 
story  of  the  flood  there  is  at  once  a  clearing  up ;  we  seem  to 
be  among  men  of  the  same  race  with  ourselves,  and  we  enter 
upon  authentic  and  crystallized  history.  In  Abraham  we  see 
a  man  whose  features  we  can  clearly  trace,  and  from  him 
the  stream  of  events  flows  onward  without  a  break.  He  is 
the  founder,  not  alone  of  the  Jewish  history,  but  of  all  con- 
nected and  undoubted  history.  We  do  not  know  the  world 
of  the  first  chapters  of  Genesis  sufficiently  well  to  trace  the 
current  of  those  dark  and  distant  times.  But  we  have  no 
such  difficulty  with  Abraham  and  with  all  who  follow  him. 
At  "  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,"  Abraham's  first  home,  is  then 


24  UR   OF   THE   CHALDEES. 

the  fountain-head  to  which  we  resort,  in  our  effort  to  trace 
the  sacred  story,  and  to  read  the  Bible  by  the  light  of  its  own 
scenery.  The  name  Chaldea  appears  to  have  passed  like  the 
sands  which  the  Euphrates  carries  to  the  sea,  down  from  the 
highlands  of  Armenia  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  Persian 
gulf.  In  the  oldest  parts  of  the  Bible  the  land  of  the  Chal- 
dees  appears  to  have  been  near  the  head-waters  of  the  Eu- 
phrates, while  at  the  close  of  the  Old  Testament  times,  it  has 
passed  to  the  tract  around  Babylon.  There  have  been  many 
debates  respecting  the  situation  of  "Ur  of  the  Chaldees,"  and 
those  who  like  Rawlinson  have  devoted  themselves  to  studies 
in  the  district  of  the  lower  Euphrates,  have  decided  that 
either  Warka  or  Mugheh%  great  heaps  of  ruins,  was  the  city 
whence  Abraham  migrated.  The  weight  of  evidence,  turns 
the  scale,  in  my  judgment,  in  favor  of  the  city  now  known  as 
Oorfa,  near  the  head-waters  of  the  Euphrates,  and  some  three 
or  four  hundred  mUes  north-east  of  Palestine.  Among  the 
singular  retributions  of  history  is  this,  that  the  city  which 
stands  where  Ur  once  stood,  is  now  a  station  of  the  American 
Board,  and  the  Gospel  of  Chris,t,  and  the  story  of  Abraham's 
life  are  now  sent  back  by  a  young  nation  of  America  to  that 
ancient  spot  whence  Abraham  journeyed  so  long  ago,  taking 
with  him  the  worship  of  a  living  and  spiritual  God.  The 
place  has  always  been  noted  for  its  profuse  spring,  and  around 
that  spring  people  have  always  clustered,  and  so  Ur  has  never 
been  without  a  history.  In  the  period  of  classic  Rome  it  was 
a  large  and  well-known  city  called  Edessa,  and  the  modern 
Orfa  or  Oorfa  is  not  a  place  without  size  and  architectural 
adornment. 

True  to  some  divine  intimation,  Abraham,  then  a  young 
man,  took  his  aged  father,  and  all  the  family  possessions,  and 
journeyed  on  to  Haran.  This  place  lay  about  twenty  miles 
south  of  Ur,  and  was  not  a  place  of  sufficient  attractions  to 
induce  him  to  tarry  long.  It  has  not  that  profuse  and  ex- 
haustless  supply  of  water  which  enriched  Ur,  his  childhood's 
home ;  but  it  has  always  been  a  place  of  some  note  in  history. 


•i'tlllulJll' 


26  HARAN   THE   SECOND    HOME. 

It  has  been  and  is  a  great  place  of  meeting  for  the  caravans 
journeying  from  Egypt  and  Syria  to  the  Euphrates  and  the 
Tigris,  and  the  roads  which  lead  to  Nineveh  and  Babylon  and 
Damascus  crossed  at  Haran.  When  Stephen  was  uttering  his 
dying  speech,  he  alluded  to  Abraham's  jom-ney  to  "Harran," 
as  to  a  place  well  known,  to  all  who  heard  his  words,  and  not 
far  from  the  time  when  Stephen  lived  and  died,- this  old  Haran 
or  Harran  had  been  the  scene  of  Crassus,  a  Roman  general's 
defeat.  It  is  therefore  one  of  the  clearly  determinable  land- 
marks of  history.  While  some  debate  circles  around  "  Ur  of 
the  Chaldees,"  none  brings  Haran  mto  doubt.  True,  once  in 
a  while,  an  erratic  and  wrong-headed  man  like  Dr.  Beke, 
di-ags  it  into  dispute,  but  the  learned  world  agree  almost  to  a 
man  that  Haran  was  near  the  Euphrates,  at  a  point  about 
three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  north-east  of  the  mountams  of 
Gilead,  east  of  the  Jordan. 

Leaving  the  body  of  his  father  Terah,  Abraham  once  more 
■  journeyed  forth.  And  this  time  he  plunged  at  once  into  the 
desert,  and  directed  his  march  towards  a  land  distant  a  week's 
weary  way,  and  over  a  country  desolate  and  barren.  It  was 
a  great  thing  to  do ;  to  take  flocks  and  herds,  and  family  and 
servants,  and  tents,  and  strike  out  into  that  desert,  only  to  en- 
ter at  last  a  land  held  by  races  of  half  savage  men,  from  whom 
he  could  expect  neither  welcome  nor  sympathy.  But  he 
obeyed  the  "  call ; "  he  "  was  not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly 
vision,"  and  "he  went  out,  not  knowing  whither  he  went." 
We  can  not  trace  him  in  the  various  stages  of  his  journey,  but 
we  know  that  he  must  have  passed  by  Damascus,  for  after- 
wards we  find  that  his  steward,  his  chief  servant,  was  Eliezer 
of  Damascus.  That  ancient  city  was  built  then,  at  the  time 
of  Abraham.  Those  mountain  streams,  which  were  fed  by 
the  dissolving  snows  of  Hermon,  then  as  now  converted  the 
otherwise  arid  plain  into  a  garden,  and  allowed  man  to  turn 
it  into  his  uses  and  establish  there  a  city.  Damascus  is  a 
child  of  the  mountain  waters  and  the  sand,  united  in  marriage 
beneath  that  fervid  Syrian  sun. 


ABRAHAM  AT   SHECHEM.  27 

Abraham  comes  into  clear  view  at  that  peerless  plain  of 
Moreh  or  Shechem,  as  it  was  subsequently  called,  always  one 
of  the  fanest  scenes  in  Palestine.  On  one  side  towered  the 
frowning  Ebal  even  then,  and  on  the  other  side,  the  smiling 
Gerizim.  The  plain  was  as  winning  then  as  it  is  now,  and  it 
kindled  Abraham  with  such  admiration,  that  he  tarried  there, 
and  under  one  of  its  groves  he  buUded  an  altar  and  wor- 
shiped his  God.  He  did  not  come  into  violent  collision  with 
the  mhabitants  of  the  place, — his  nature  was  too  gentle  and 
peaceful  for  that, — but  he  made  no  long  stay  there,  and  still 
journeyed  on  toward  the  south. 

His  next  halting  place  was  hard  by  a  place  which  had  no 
note  then,  but  which  was  afterwards  in  connection  with 
Abraham's  grandson,  to  become  one  of  the  hallowed  spots  of 
the  world.  Near  Bethel,  between  it  and  the  walled  city  of 
Hai  or  Ai,  which  was  afterwards  to  be  one  of  the  first  to  fall 
before  the  victorious  arms  of  Joshua,  was  a  high  ridge,  on  the 
summit  of  which  Abraham  tarried  again.  He  had  passed 
from  a  rich  and  smiling  valley  to  the  comparatively  sterile  hill 
country  of  Central  Palestine.  It  was  not  such  a  spot  as  the 
beautiful  Moreh  or  Shechem,  which  he  had  left  behind;  it  was 
not  of  course  desolate  and  barren  as  it  is  in  its  neglect  and 
misrule  to-day,  but  it  was  no  pleasant,  attractive  place.  It 
was  there  that  he  felt  the  hard  pressure  of  famine,  for  Pales- 
tine was  then  as  now  a  land  of  precarious  fortunes,  liable  to 
that  great  scourge,  of  which  we  know  so  little,  an  almost  en- 
tire failure  of  the  crops.  The  world  is  so  bound  together  now, 
that  the  want  of  one  region  is  at  once  and  without  observa- 
tion, compensated  by  the  increased  supply  of  some  other 
region,  and  so  we  know  little  or  nothing  of  suffering  from 
famine.  But  it  was  not  so  in  the  past,  nor  is  it  so  now  in 
lands  out  of  the  regular  march  of  civilization.  In  those 
ancient  days,  Egypt  was  the  one  unfailing  source  of  supply. 
Its  certain  inundation  gave  it  every  year  just  that  amount  of 
virgin  soil,  and  its  never  fading  waters  secured  it  that  kind  of 
irrigation  which  made  the  crops  as  sure  as  the  return  of  th(» 


28  DIVIDES   WITH  LOT. 

year,  and  all  the  lands  on  the  north-east,  east,  and  west  of 
Egypt,  Palestine,  Arabia  Petrsea  and  Libya,  looked  to  Egypt 
for  bread  when  their  own  supplies  failed.  And  so  when  on 
those  uplands  near  Bethel  where  Abraham  had  built  another 
altar,  the  crops  gave  no  return,  he  took  his  flocks  and  herds 
and  household  and  went  down  into  the  Nile  country.  Re- 
maining there  till  the  famine  was  past,  he  retui-ned  to  the 
neighborhood  of  Bethel. 

He  was  then  a  rich  man,  "very  rich  in  cattle  and  in  silver 
and  in  gold."  His  flocks  had  increased  to  that  degree  that 
the  upland  was  not  able  to  afford  them  sustenance,  and  it 
was  necessary  to  divide  the  country  between  himself  and  his 
nephew,  Lot.  With  that  fine  courtesy  which  always  distin- 
guished him,  and  as  the  older  and  stronger  giving  the  better 
opportunity  to  the  younger,  he  surveyed  with  Lot  all  the  land 
from  that  high  ridge.  Down  at  their  feet,  at  the  east,  could 
be  seen  the  fertile  plain  of  the  Jordan,  not  arid  and  desolate 
as  now,  with  a  dense  jungle  along  the  banks  the  only  vege- 
tation, but  a  well  watered  and  verdant  plain,  terminated  at 
the  south  by  the  luxuriant  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea.  That'sea 
was  not  then  a  scene  of  wild  and  repulsive  desolation,  but 
was  a  gem  of  blue  in  a  setting  of  emerald ;  its  coast  studded 
with  opulent  cities,  and  all  its  surroundings  as  beautiful  as 
they  are  now  ghastly.  Southward  could  be  seen  the  hills  of 
Southern  Palestine,  northward  the  peaks  of  Galilee,  and  far 
in  the  background,  the :  lofty  and  snowy  summit  of  Hermon. 
It  was,  and  stUl  is,  a  splendid  panorama.  This  Abraham 
proposed  to  divide  with  Lot.  With  that  rare  and  winning 
gentleness  of  his,  he  said,  "Let  there  be  no  strife,  I  pray 
thee,  between  me  and  thee,  and  between  my  herdmen  and 
thy  herdmen,  for  we  be  brethren.  Is  not  the  whole  land 
before  thee?  Separate  thyself,  I  pray  thee,  from  me.  If  thou 
wilt  take  the  left  hand,  then  I  will  go  to  the  right;  or  if 
thou  depart  to  the  right  hand,  then  I  will  go  to  the  left." 
Lot,  with  a  greedy  desire  to  secure  the  best,  at  once  selected 
the  Jordan  plain,  and  went  down  into  it,  and  ever  after  lived 


HEBEON  AND   MAMRE.  31 


there  and  on  the  borders  of  the  Dead  Sea.     But  the  future 
proved  that  in  his  haste  he  had  overleaped,  and  chosen  badly. 
For  in  that  fervid 'and  steaming    climate,  men  always   de- 
generate, and  the  Arabs  now  living  in  the  Ghor  or  deep  Jor- 
dan valley  are  among  the  lowest  of  their  name.    Lot's  lineage 
blended  afterwards  with  the  people  of  that  region,  and  be- 
came the  Moabites  and  the  wild  Ammonites,  but  they  shared 
all  the  ill  fortune  which  fell  upon  the  wickedness  of  the  Dead 
Sea  cities,  and  became   entangled   in  aU   their   misfortunes. 
Abraham  on  the  other  hand,  became  the  possessor  of  the 
breezy  and  invigorating  hill-tops,  having  a  hardy  soil,  indeed, 
and  a  rougher  chmate,  but  having  those  qualities  which  pro- 
duce able  and  rugged  manhood,  and  which  saved  his  stock 
fi-om  premature  decay.     Just  as  New  England's  soil  and  cli- 
mate have  been  the  vigorous  nursing  mother  of  a  stalwart 
race,  so  did  Abraham's  possessions,  though  apparently  the  less 
propitious,  make  his  fortune  much  the  better. 

From  the  halting  place  near  Bethel,  Abraham  moved  south- 
ward to  the  neighborhood  of   Hebron,  the  place  named  in 
Scripture  the  "  Plains  of  Mamre."     It  was  doubtless  hard  by 
the  present  city  of  Hebron,  for  the  unvarying  voice  of  tradi- 
tion and  the  hints  which  the  Scriptures  give  us,  make  it  certam 
that  it  was  there  where  Abraham  tarried.     The  place  was 
probably  the  high  upland  in  the  rear  of  modern  Hebron,  and 
his  flocks  and  herds  may  have  found  pasturage  m  the  fertile 
valleys  near  by.     Hebron  was  then  a  city,  one  of  the  most 
ancient  cities  of  the  world,  and  giving  tokens,  like  Damascus, 
that  it  had  note  and  mark  even  then.     The  tribe  of  Hittites 
occupied  it  then,  and  m  the  neighborhood  were  some  of  those 
giants,  whose  names  have  been  preserved  in  the  Scriptures, 
but  of  whom  we  know  little  but  the  names. 

It  was  whHe  Abraham  dwelt  near  Hebron,  that  the  invasion 
of  the  "  Kings  of  the  East"  occm-red,  recounted  m  the  four- 
teenth chapter  of  Genesis.  The  story  is  one  on  which  the 
reader  does  not  generally  linger,  for  the  popular  ignorance  ot 
sacred  geography  is  so  great,  that  a  narrative  Uke  that,  em- 


THE   DEAD   SEA.  33 

bracing  so  many  of  these  grotesque  and  unpronounceable  He- 
brew names,  is  usually  jumped  in  the  perusal.  Nevertheless, 
the  patient  reader,  who  wiQ  take  the  pains  to  study  that  chapter 
wUl  find  his  reward.  It  is  a  graphic  and  admirable  narrative 
of  great  events,  and  if  we  will  but  decipher  it  as  we  would 
the  story  of  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  we  shall  find  it  as  clear 
as  the  story  of  that  campaign. 

The  lower  course  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  rivers  was 
then  bordered  by  tribes  of  rude  men,  under  the  control  of 
chieftains  whose  names  have  been  preserved.  That  region 
embraced  the  Plains  of  Shinar,  and  became  a  part  of  the  la- 
ter provinces  of  Chaldea  and  Babylonia.  It  was  then  in 
the  rudimentary  stage  of  its  history.  The  nearest  rivals  of 
these  chieftains,  on  the  west,  were  the  five  kings  of  the  five 
cities  of  the  Dead  Sea  Plain,  Sodom,  Gomorrah,  Admah, 
Zeboim,  and  Zoar.  These  cities  stood  at  the  southern  ex- 
tremity of  the  Dead  Sea,  as  Wolcott  has  conclusively  shown. 
The  whole  region  was  one  of  great  fertility.  That  salty  tract 
of  varying  breadth  which  stretched  southward  from  six  to  ten 
miles,  from  the  Dead  Sea  to  the  base  of  the  hills  and  cliffs, 
was  then  a  beautiful  and  verdurous  plain.  It  was  covered 
with  population  and  studded  with  cities.  Zoar  stood  on  or 
near  the  peninsula  of  Lisan,  which  extends  into  the  Dead  Sea 
from  the  eastern  side.  Just  where  the  other  cities  were  we 
do  not  know,  but  tradition  places  Sodom  at  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  lake.  The  general  appearance  of  the  sea 
was  then  as  it  is  now,  although  it  was  by  no  means  so  bit- 
ter and  repulsive  to  the  taste  as  now,  for  the  Jordan  has  been 
poming  in  its  brackish  waters  for  thousands  of  years,  while 
evaporation  has  continually  been  going  on,  and  the  brine  has 
been  growing  stronger  and  stronger.  All  the  salts  which 
have  been  dissolved  for  ages  from  the  soil  of  Palestine,  are 
now  in  the  bitter  waters  of  the  Dead  Sea,  for  there  is  no  out- 
let, and  evaporation  carries  off  what  is  absolutely  pure,  leaving 
all  that  is  acrid  behind. 

The  tongue  of  land  known  as  the  Lisan,  which  juts  into  the 


84  THE   DEAD    SEA. 

Dead  Sea  from  the  east,  divides  it  into  two  parts  which  are 
entirely  different.  The  northern  one  embraces  about  two- 
thirds  of  the  entire  area,  the  southern,  the  remaining  one-third. 
The  depth  of  the  northern  part  is  very  great,  about  1,312  feet, 
and  it  is  1,100  feet  deep  a  mere  cable  length  fi-om  the  mouth 
of  the  Arnon.  From  the  steep  cliffs  in  the  east,  the  coast 
sinks  away  at  once  to  those  great  distances.  But  the  average 
depth  of  the  southern  portion  is  but  18  feet,  and  there  is  a 
large  part  that  can  be  forded  with  perfect  ease.  Indeed  it  is 
said  that  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  two  English 
travelers  went  on  foot  from  the  Lisan  peninsula  across  the 
lower  arm  of  the  Dead  Sea.  It  has  been  supposed  by  Robin- 
son and  others  who  have  blindly  followed  him,  that  that  was 
"  the  plain  "  of  Scripture,  and  that  in  the  great  catastrophe 
of  Sodom  it  was  submerged ;  and  indeed  the  bitumen  some- 
times found  floating  on  the  water,  and  the  scanty  depth,  do 
give  a  certain  color  to  the  conjecture,  but  the  studies  of  the 
best  geologists  who  have  explored  that  region,  do  not  confirm 
it,  and  it  is  now  considered  to  be  beyond  doubt,  that  the 
physical  character  of  the  Dead  Sea  has  not  been  changed  by 
any  violent  convulsion  of  nature,  within  the  limits  of  human 
history. 

The  course  of  the  five  kings  who  came  from  the  plains 
around  the  lower  Euphrates,  was  unquestionably  up  that  river 
many  hundreds  of  miles,  to  a  point  where  it  is  but  a  week's 
journey  or  less  across  the  desert  to  the  uplands  of  Syria  and 
then  down  the  central  mountain  land  of  Palestine.  To  have 
gone  directly  across  the  great  desert  from  the  lower  Euphrates 
to  the  Dead  Sea  would  have  been  madness.  No  other  course 
was  feasible  but  the  long,  circuitous  route  already  indicated. 
They  descended  on  the  kings  of  the  five  cities  of  the  plain 
and  brought  them  into  immediate  subjection.  That  subjec- 
tion continued  for  thhteen  years,  but  in  the  fourteenth  the 
conquered  kings  on  the  shore  of  the  Dead  Sea  rebelled,  and 
Chedorlaomei"  and  the  other  three  chieftains  from  Shinar, 
were  compelled  to  come  once  more  and  do  their  work  over 


THE   CHIEFTAINS   FROM   THE   EAST.  85 

again.  Their  course  this  time  was  down  through  the  high- 
lands of  Palestine  east  of  the  Jordan.  They  first  vanquished 
the  stalwart  Rephauns,  whose  capitol  was  Ashteroth  Karnaim, 
thence  advancing  southward  they  conquered  successively  the 
two  powerful  tribes  of  Zuzims  and  Emims,  who  held  the  dis- 
trict east  and  north-east  of  the  Dead  Sea,  the  precursors  of 
the  Moabites  and  Ammonites  afterwards  to  come,  they  then 
fell  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  Seu'  or  Edom  range  extending 
from  the  Dead  Sea  to  the  eastern  arm  of  the  Red  Sea  and 
brought  them  into  subjection,  then  doubling  that  range,  they 
passed  up  along  its  western  base,  attacking  and  overcoming  the 
fierce  Amalekites,  that  notable  tribe  of  Arabs  who  held  the 
northern  edge  of  the  Sinaitic  wilderness,  and  lastly  fell  upon 
one  of  the  old  tribes- of  Palestine,  the  warlike  Amorites,  who 
lived  in  the  rocky  and  sterile  region  west  of  the  Dead  Sea. 
They  smote  them  at  a  place  then  called  Hazezon-tamar,  but 
afterwards  better  known  as  Engedi,  the  place  to  which  David 
fled  from  Saul,  and  where  he  wrote  two  at  least  of  his  most 
moving  psalms.  The  place  is  still  known  as  Ain  Jidy,  the  old 
name  differently  spelled,  but  still  pronounced  hke  Engedi. 

Reaching  this  spot,  they  were  attacked  by  the  five  kings  of 
the  cities  near  by,  but  to  no  avail.  The  men  of  the  plain 
were  vanquished  by  the  invaders  from  the  east,  and  among 
those  who  were  taken  prisoner  and  whose  goods  were  seized, 
were  Lot  and  his  household.  A  messenger  was  at  once  des- 
patched to  carry  the  tidings  to  his  uncle  Abraham  at  Hebron, 
but  a  few  miles  across  the  country.  At  once  the  old  sheikh, 
touched  by  the  strong  tie  of  kin,  so  potent  in  the  east,  started 
in  pursuit  of  the  flying  invaders.  We  get  a  glimpse  of  him 
and  his  well-trained  servants,  three  hundred  and  eighteen  m 
number,  at  Dan,  near  the  sources  of  Jordan.  Abraham  over- 
took them  at  Hobah,  near  Damascus,  and  falling  upon  them 
in  the  night,  routed  them  completely,  and  rescued  those 
whom  he  wished  to  save.  His  return  was  that  of  a  conqueror. 
Melchisedek,  the  king  of  Salem,  a  man,  who  like  Abraham, 
had  learned  in  some  unknown  way,  the  worship  of  a  spiritual 


S6  MELCHISEDEK. 

God,  came  forth  to  meet  him,  and  blessed  him  and  spread  "be- 
fore him  a  noble  feast.  Who  this  man  was,  and  where  he 
lived,  we  do  not  know.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  Salem 
was  the  subsequent  Jerusalem,  but  that  we  do  not  know. 

The  closing  years  of  Abraham's  life  were  spent  in  Beer- 
sheba  and  in  the  region  adjacent,  to  be  more  particularly  des- 
cribed in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  n. 

JACOB  AND  THE  "SOUTH  COUNTRY." 
I 

Change  in  the  Character  of  the  Country — Hills  give  place  to  Rolling  Land — 
Grass  Appears — This  Land  the  Last  Resting-place  of  Abraham  and  the  Home 
of  Isaac — This  Region  not  yet  Thoroughly  Explored — Wells  still  a  subject 
of  Contention — The  Real  Home  of  the  Patriarchs — Hagar — Hebron  and  the 
Cave  of  Machpelah — Prince  of  Wales'  Examination  of  it — Jacob's  Embalmed 
Body  probably  there  now — Jacob's  Wanderings  "  in  Search  of  a  Wife  " — His 
Return  to  Palestine — Shechem — The  Death  and  Burial-place  of  RacheL 

OUTH  of  Beersheba  the  hills  fade  away,  and  are 
lost  in  the  rolling  country  which  stretches  onward 
to  the  distant  mountain-land  lying  on  the  northern 
part  of  the  great  Et  Tih  plateau.  As  one  passes  up  from  the 
Sinaitic  Wilderness  into  the  hill  country  of  Palestine,  he  no- 
tices, in  the  last  twenty  miles  before  reaching  Beersheba,  the 
symptoms  of  a  change.  The  aromatic  shrubs  of  the  desert 
gradually  disappear,  and  grass  takes  its  place.  There  are 
no  trees,  and  yet  the  ground  loses  its  almost  fearfully  sterile 
look,  and  begins  to  put  on  the  first  indications  of  fertility. 
Of  all  the  travelers  who  have  written  of  this  south  country, 
no  other  one  has  traced  its  features  with  the  tender  fidelity 
of  Bonar,  the  Scotch  poet  and  preacher,  in  his  "  Desert  of 
Sinai "  and  "  Land  of  Promise," — ^both  excellent  and  admir- 
able works. 

Not  that  there  is  much  that  can  detain  the  traveler  for  any 
length  of  time :  its  resources  are  very  slight,  and  its  features 
are  not  striking.  Yet,  as  the  home  of  Abraham  for  an  exceed- 
ingly attractive  part  of  his  life,  as  the  home  of  Isaac  and  of 
Jacob  for  a  part  of  theirs,  it  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
regions  mentioned  in  the  Bible.     It  is  not  yet,  strange  to  say, 


38  SCENE   OF  HAGAR's  WANDERINGS. 

thoroughly  explored.  Wliile  there  is  scarcely  a  wady  between 
Dan  and  Beersheba  which  has  not  been  examined  with  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  care,  the  south  country  is  known  only  as  it  has 
been  traversed  by  the  caravan  routes  of  the  desert.  The  two 
hasty  tours  made  a  few  years  ago  by  Rev.  Mr.  Rowland,  in 
search  of  Kadesh,  lasting  but  three  or  foiu'  days  each,  are 
almost  the  only  ones  which  have  been  made  south  of  Beer- 
sheba, except  by  those  who  have  had  occasion  to  cross  the 
region.  And  discredited  as  Mr.  Rowland  apparently  must  be, 
in  respect  to  his  alleged  discovery  of  the  site  of  Kadesh,  and 
the  fancied  identification  of  the  well  which  he  encountered  in 
the  desert  with  the  one  which  Hagar  stumbled  upon  when 
famished  and  at  the  door  of  death,  still  the  remarks  which  he 
makes  show,  that,  in  spite  of  the  distempered  enthusiasm  with 
which  he  recounts  his  explorations,  there  is  a  rich  field  for  the 
researches  of  a  learned,  careful,  and  zealous  man.  Yet,  even 
with  such  exjjloration,  there  is  no  startling  mystery  in  that 
south  country  wliich  will  be  brought  to  light.  We  know, 
almost  beyond  question,  that  the  country  where  Abraham 
lived  was  at  Beersheba  and  in  its  immediate  vicinity ;  that 
Isaac  went  westward  to  Gerar,  and  digged  his  numerous  wells 
up  and  down  the  course  of  Wady  Sheriah,  a  broad  and  shallow 
water-course  a  few  miles  south-east  of  Gaza,  and  running 
toward  the  latter  city.  Very  careful  research  might  bring  to 
hght  the  wells  which  the  provident  and  domestic  Isaac  digged, 
— the  sources  of  such  frequent  controversy  between  his  herds- 
men and  those  of  the  Philistine  king.  Even  to  the  present 
day,  wells  are  the  most  valuable  possession  of  the  Arab  tribes  ; 
and  no  contentions  are  so  prolonged  or  so  bitter  as  those  which 
are  held  in  respect  to  their  possession.  But,  of  all  the  wells 
of  the  whole  region,  no  two  come  so  prominently  forward  as 
Beersheba,  the  favorite  residence  of  Abraham  and  Jacob,  and 
Beer-lahai-roi,  the  place  around  which  Isaac  loved  to  caU 
together  his  flocks.  Mr.  Rowland,  in  his  hasty  tour  through 
the  south  country,  discovered  a  well  some  distance  south  of 
Wady  Sheriah,  the  ancient  Valley  of  Gerar,  bearing  the  name 


THE  EXPULSION  OF  HAGAR. 


THE  REAL  HOME  OP  THE  PATRIARCHS.         41 

Moilalii.  This,  from  the  resemblance  in  the  names,  he  con- 
jectured to  be  Hagar  and  Isaac's  Lahai-roi.  It  is  scarcely- 
possible  that  this  was  the  case.  The  country  where  Rowland 
made  his  early  discoveries  is  too  barren  to  have  been  attractive 
to  a  good  husbandman  like  Isaac  :  he  wovdd  have  chos^  the 
more  fertile  land  south  of  Gaza,  and  in  fact  encroaching  some 
distance  upon  what  was  the  subsequent  territory  of  the  Pliil- 
istines.  The  retem  or  juniper-bush  grows  there  now  just  as 
it  did  in  the  olden  time ;  and  it  affords  a  scanty  shelter  from 
the  sun's  rays  to  the  Arab  of  to-day,  jugt  as  it  did  to  Elijah, 
while  he  was  on  his  pilgrimage  to  Horeb,  and  had  advanced  a 
day's  journey  south  of  Beersheba. 

Here,  then,  in  this  half-fertile,  half-desert  tract,  was  the  real 
home  of  the  patriarchs.  South  of  it  was  the  wilderness,  the 
subsequent  scene  of  their  descendants'  trials  and  protracted 
wanderings.  North  of  it  was  the  home  of  the  Canaanites,  the 
powerful  and  partly  civiUzed  descendants  of  Ham.  "With  the 
patriarchal  famihes  we  see  mingled  rival  lords  of  the  soil,  the 
Abimelechs,  wandering  princes  also,  men  who  lived  in  tents, 
and  possessed  vast  flocks  and  herds.  Abraham  did  not  at- 
tempt to  dispossess  the  strong  tribes  which  he  found  lying  be- 
tween Dan  and  Beersheba :  but  after  tarrying  briefly  at  She- 
chem.  Bethel,  and  Hebron,  he  went  a  few  miles  farther  south, 
to  the  open  country,  where  there  were  no  walled  cities ;  and 
here  he  and  his  sons  and  his  sons'  sons  led  their  roving,  pas- 
toral hfe.  We  trace  Hagar  passing  beyond  that  desert  where 
she  famished,  making  her  abode  for  a  season  in  Egypt,  and 
securing  a  wife  there  for  her  son  Ishmael ;  but  none  of  the 
descendants  (Gen.  xxv.)  work  their  way  northward  into  the 
land  of  the  Canaanites  :  they  go  south-eastward  into  the  hills 
and  plains,  and  become  the  fathers  of  those  wandering  Arabs, 
who  perpetuate,  in  the  smallest  details,  the  peculiarities  of 
the  time  when  Ishmael  led  liis  roving  life.  The  other  descend- 
ants of  Abraham,  his  sons  by  Keturah  (Gen.  xxv.),  went  far- 
ther away  ;  and  we  find  them  and  their  successors  in  the  most 
fertile  parts  of  Arabia  Felix.     Isaac  remains  at  Beersheba  and 


42  THE   CAVE  OP  MACHPELAH. 

Mamre,  and  in  the  Vale  of  Gerar,  a  little  westward,  nevei 
leaving  that  region  but  once,  and  then  when  his  father  car- 
ried him  for  sacrifice  to  Moriah.  Allusion  may  be  made  here  to 
the  rock-tomb  which  Abraham  purchased  of  the  Hittite  tribe, 
and*which  was  directly  before  those  oaks  of  Mamre  which  for 
thirteen  years  sheltered  Abraham's  tents.  The  upland  of 
Mamre  is  passed  now  by  the  traveler  directly  after  leaving 
Hebron  and  going  northward,  itself  bare  and  possessed  of  lit- 
tle that  is  striking  or  interesting,  saving  a  great  oak,  a  vivid 
reminder  of  the  terebinth  under  which  Abraham  refreshed  him- 
self. But  the  grave  has  had  a  more  splendid  destiny  than  the 
shaded  spot  where  Abraham  lived.  There  is  no  doubt  whatever 
that  the  place  where  Abraham  and  Sarah,  Isaac  and  Rebekah, 
Jacob  and  Leah,  were  buried,  is  now  sacredly  guarded  within  the 
mosque  at  Hebron.  It  is  one  of  those  places  which 

are  equally  revered  at  the  present  time  by  Jew,  Mahometan, 
and  Christian ;  and  there  has  been  not  a  year  nor  a  day  since 
the  time  of  Abraham  when  that  rock-tomb  has  been  exposed 
to  desecration,  or  when  a  guard  has  not  been  set  over  it. 
From  the  time  when  Abraham  purchased  it,  down  all  the  cen- 
tmies  of  the  Old  Covenant,  it  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
Jews.  The  Christians  then  gained  possession  of  it ;  then  the 
Mahometans  grasped  it:  but  the  patriarchs,  and  especially 
Abraham,  were  beloved  in  their  eyes,  and  it  suffered  no  det- 
riment. The  Christians  held  it  again  for  the  little  season  in 
which  the  Crusaders  were  victorious,  and  then  relinquished  it 
once  more  into  the  hands  of  the  Moslems.  These  hold  it  to- 
day, as  must  be  said  to  the  shame  of  the  Christian  world. 
There  is  but  one  race  which  should  possess  and  keep  that  hal- 
lowed tomb,— the  Jews  themselves.  It  ought,  indeed,  to  be 
freely  open  to  the  Gentile  world, — to  those  who,  though  not 
of  Abrahamic  lineage,  yet  revere  his  memory,  and  accept  the 
Christian  fulfilling  of  his  faith  ;  and  yet  it  is  owed  to  the  Jews 
that  it  be  taken  from  those  who  hold  it  now  in  their  foul  and 
unseemly  clutch,  and  given  to  the  descendants  of  the  ancient 
patriarchs.     Happily,  the  strong  arm  of  the  British  govern- 


44  THE  PRINCE   OF   WALES'  VISIT. 

ment  has  wrested  within  our  days  what  assuredly  would  not 
have  been  given ;  and  the  Prince  of  Wales,  accompanied  by  a 
small  and  chosen  party  of  fiiends  and  scholars,  has  been  per- 
mitted to  go  as  far  as  some  might  perhaps  consider  it  seemly 
under  any  cncumstances  to  advance.  It  is  true,  they  did  not 
enter  the  cave  itself.  The  darkened  slmnes  which  bear  the 
names  of  the  ancient  patriarchs  and  their  wives,  and  which  are 
jealously  guarded  by  the  Moslem  keepers,  are  directly  over 
the  tomb ;  yet,  in  that  part  of  the  mosque  wliich  is  called  the 
shrine  of  Abraham,  the  royal  party  saw  a  hole  about  eight 
inches  across,  which  leads  directly  into  the  cave  below.  Every 
night,  a  lamp  is  lowered  into  the  vault,  but  it  is  withdrawn  by 
day.  The  original  entrance  is  closed  by  masonry,  but  was 
doubtless  on  the  southern  face  of  the  hill,  and  so  situated  that 
Abraham,  as  he.  sat  under  his  oaks,  could  look  fully  into  it. 
The  student  who  may  wish  to  trace  the  architectural  history 
of  the  mosque  will  find  it  fully  detailed  in  Ritter's  work  on 
the  Holy  Land,  vol.  iii.  pp.  305  et  seq. ;  and  no  one  can  fail  to 
be  instructed  by  the  graphic  nan-ative  which  Dean  Stanley, 
one  of  the  Prince  of  Wales'  party,  has  given  of  the  royal  visit 
in  1862.  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten,  that  the  great  earnestness 
to  penetrate  the  cave  of  Machpelah  is  peculiar,  it  would  seem, 
to  the  Christian  nations  of  the  present  day.  The  pasha  of 
Jerusalem,  who  yielded  the  right  of  entrance  to  the  EngHsh 
party,  expressed  wonder  at  then-  curiosity,  and  said  that  "he 
had  never  thought  of  visitmg  the  mosque  for  any  other  pur- 
pose than  snuffing  the  sacred  air."  Yet  it  may  be  doubted 
whether,  in  case  a  strong  curiosity  should  prompt  a  Mahom- 
etan to  descend,  he  would  dare  to ;  for  Quaresmius  tells  us 
"  that,  early  as  the  seventh  century,  it  was  firmly  believed,  that, 
if  any  Mussulman  entered  the  cavern,  immediate  death  would 
be  the  consequence."  I  trust,  however,  that  the  growing  weak- 
ness of  the  Turkish  government  will  allow  of  even  more  per- 
fect exploration.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that,  in  a  good 
measure  of  probability,  the  body  of  Jacob,  embalmed  as  it  was 
in  Egypt,  is  in  as  perfect  condition  there  to-day  as  are  the 


JACOB   IN   SEARCH   OF   A  WIFE.  45 

mummies  which  are  disinterred  on  the  Nile ;  and,  it  may  be, 
the  first  layers  of  the  masonry  to  be  still  seen  at  Hebron  were 
laid  by.  Joseph  himself,  on  the  occasion  of  his  father's  sumptu- 
ous funeral.  •  That  this  is  no  idle  fancy  is  shown  by  the  wealth 
and  power  of  the  man,  whose  father  had  been  a  Hebrew  shep- 
herd, but  who  had  wrought  out  his  fortune  with  such  signal 
success  in  Egypt.  Here  Joseph  had  become  habituated  to 
magnificent  sepulchers,  as  well  as  to  sumptuous  sepultures ; 
and  after  that  costly  pageantry  of  burial  described  so  strik- 
ingly in  the  closing  chapter  of  Genesis,  it  is  hardly  to  be  sup- 
posed that  he  would  fail  to  designate,  with  some  architectural 
memorial,  the  simple  rock-grave  which  his  great-grandfather 
purchased,  and  which  for  three  generations  had  lain  in  its  orig- 
inal rudeness. 

Jacob's  return  to  the  land  of  his  forefathers,  that  he  might 
take  a  wife  from  his  own  family  and  not  from  strangers,  brings 
Haran  momentarily  into  view  again  ;  and  not  Haran  only,  but 
one  or  two  other  places  which  have  already  become  familiar 
to  us  in  connection  with  Abraham's  wanderings.  He  leaves 
Beersheba,  the  home  of  his  childhood ;  but  he  leaves  it  not 
to  return  to  its  comparative  bareness,  and  the  scanty  resources 
which  it  had  yielded  to  Abraham  and  Isaac.  We  find  him 
living  farther  north,  in  the  fertile  vale  of  Hebron  and  on  the 
fruitful  plain  of  Shechem,  but  no  more  in  the  south  country. 
His  way  led  him  from  his  childliood's  home,  along  the  great 
ridge  which  runs  north  and  southward  all  the  way  fi'om  Dan 
to  Beersheba.  We  get  no  glimpse  of  him  till  he  reaches 
Bethel,  the  same  place  ah-eady  noticed,  the  Luz  of  a  former 
time,  on  a  mountain  directly  east  of  which  Abraham  and  Lot 
stood  when  they  surveyed  the  whole  country,  and  divided  it 
between  themselves.  On  one  of  the  stones  of  that  still  wild 
and  rocky  spot,  Jacob  pillowed  his  head,  and  saw  in  his  dream 
the  ladder  that  reached  to  the  stars.  On  he  went, — no  names 
of  places  given  us, — and  came  to  the  distant  Mesopotamia, 
"  the  land  of  the  people  of  the  East,"  and  at  last  greeted  his 
kinsmen  of  Haran.     Near  the  home  of  his  grandfather,  he 


46  Jacob's  return  from  haran. 

wrought  his  fourteen  years'  service,  and  at  last  returned,  no 
longer  a  solitary  shepherd  with  crook  and  staff  alone,  but  a 
man  of  substance.  His  flight  with  his  wives  and  herds  carried 
him,  not,  as  before,  past  the  foot  of  Hermon,  and  not  far  from 
Damascus,  but  south-westward,  direct  toward  the  mountains 
of  Gilcad,  a  distance  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles.  This 
natural  defense  he  reached  on  the  seventh  day.  The  hight 
Mizpah,  where  he  made  his  covenant  with  Laban,  was  long 
considered  a  sacred  spot,  and  the  cairn  erected  there  testified 
to  the  historical  interest  of  the  place.  It  is  not  known  with 
certainty  at  the  present  time  where  was  that  Mizpah,  one  of 
the  many  whose  names  are  scattered  through  the  Bible,  and 
all  of  them  designating  a  lofty  natural  watch-tower  ;  but  there 
is  but  little  doubt  that  it  lay  on  the  eastern  part  of  the  Gilead 
range.  Thence  Jacob  passed  westward  to  the  site  of  his 
next  encampment,  Mahanaim.  This  place,  the  scene  of  that 
"  wrestling "  which  has  given  its  own  name  to  the  Jabbok 
River,  is  familiarly  known.  It  can  be  readily  seen  from  any 
high  point  near  the  plain  of  Esdraelon.  The  eye,  tracing  the 
Jabbok  from  its  confluence  without  the  Jordan  eastward,  sees 
with  distinctness,  even  at  a  considerable  distance,  the  cleft 
which  the  river  makes  through  the  great  rock  wall  which  runs 
parallel  with  the  Jordan,  on  the  eastern  bank,  from  its  source 
to  its  mouth.  On  this  ravine,  but  a  half-day's  march  from 
the  Jordan,  was  Mahanaim.  From  this  point  Jacob  sent  his 
messengers  southwaird  to  the  mountains  of  Seir,  the  possession 
of  his  brother  Esau,  to  greet  and  propitiate  that  powerful 
chieftain.  Instead  of  bringing  back  a  peaceful  response, 
the  martial  brother,  having  already  subdued  the  powerful 
Horites,  who  formerly  inhabited  Seir,  headed  his  bands  and 
rushed  northward,  as  if  with  the  object  of  checking  Jacob's 
advance.  I  need  not  remind  the  reader  of  the  fear  of  the 
younger  brother,  of  the  rich  present  sent  to  propitiate  the 
elder,  of  the  sudden  revulsion  in  the  mind  of  the  impulsive 
Esau,  and  the  peaceful  interview  of  the  chieftains.  Esau 
and   Jacob  part  on  the  borders  of  the  Jabbok  for  the  last 


48  SUCCOTH  AND    SHECHEM. 

time ;  the  former  returns  with  his  retinue  to  his  own  moun- 
tains, the  hitter  crosses  the  brook,  then  follows  its  course 
to  the  Jordan,  and  lodges  at  Succoth.  Here  he  does  not 
erect  tents ;  he  is  passing  into  a  higher  stage  of  life.  Suc- 
coth means  "  booths ; "  and  the  place,  thousands  of  years 
subsequently,  the  scene  of  Lynch's  encampment  on  the 
Jordan,  testifies  in  its  very  etymology  that  there,  on  Is- 
rael's real  entering  the  promised  land  as  a  nation,  the 
day  of  tents  and  nomadic  wanderings  had  passed  away  for 
ever. 

From  Succoth,  near  the  confluence  of  the  Jabbok  and  the 
Jordan,  there  are  wadies,  or  gorges,  running  north-westward 
to  the  j^lain  of  Esdraelon  and  westward  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Shechem.  The  course  which  Jacob  then  took  is  one  which 
has  been  frightfully  familiar  to  the  people  of  Palestine  ever 
since.  Down  that  cleft  which  he  followed,  over  that  same 
ford  where  he  crossed  the  Jordan,  and  up  the  wadies,  are 
even  now,  and  have  always  been,  the  ravaging  courses  of  those 
terrible  Arabs  who  come  from  the  east,  and  who  are  so  much 
fiercer  than  any  who  are  met  in  Palestine,  or  in  the  Sinai 
Peninsula.  It  is  that  open  door  eastward  which  now  makes 
the  rich  vale  of  Esdraelon  httle  better  than  a  waste  of  flowers, 
uncut  grass,  and  rank  weeds  ;  no  man  dares  till  it ;  for  with 
the  approach  of  harvest  the  Arabs  would  come  up  from  across 
the  Ghor,  by  Jacob's  former  path,  and  bring  terror  to  man 
and  destruction  to  every  growing  thing.  And  so  it  will  be, 
so  long  as  the  present  inefiicient  government  holds  sway, — a 
government  so  notoriously  deficient  in  the  power  to  protect 
its  people  that  a  land  which  once  supported  eight  millions 
of  souls  now  meagerly  gives  sustenance  to  one-tenth  of  tha'i 
number. 

Shechem,  that  loveliest  of  all  the  vales  of  Palestine,  wrought 
the  same  effect  upon  Jacob  that  it  had  done  upon  Abraham. 
As  we  find  the  grandfather  tarrying  at  the  plain  of  Moreh, 
and  building  an  altar  there ;  so,  under  its  changed  name  of 
Shechem,  we  see  that  it  wins  the  grandson  just  as  cordially. 


60  DEATH  AND   BURIAL  OP  RACHEL.  % 

It  was  doubtless  inhabited  in  Abraham's  day,  but  of  its  earlier 
tenants  we  do  not  hear ,  enough  that  Abraham  went  south- 
ward before  coming  into  collision  with  them.  And  there,  by 
the  side  of  that  well  which  Jacob  digged,  and  which,  little 
changed,  can  be  seen  to-day,  the  shrewd,  careful  man  could 
have  lived  without  serious  contention  as  well  as  Isaac  lived  in 
the  valley  of  Gerar,  far  to  the  south.  But  this  was  not  to  be. 
The  strivings  of  Isaac's  herdsmen  with  those  of  Abimelech 
were  easily  pacified,  in  comparison  with  the  feuds  which  the 
turbulent  sons  of  Jacob  stirred  up  with  the  Canaanites,  who 
possessed  the  valley  of  Shechem.  The  cautious  and  peace- 
loving  patriarch  preferred  to  withdraw  to  a  less  favored  spot, 
to  the  vale  of  Hebron,  which  his  grandfather  Abraham  and 
his  father  Isaac  had  loved.  His  journey  southward  took  him 
past  a  site  already  sacred  in  his  memory,  the  Luz,  or  Bethel, 
where  that  wonderful  vision  of  angels  ascending  and  descend- 
ing came  to  him  as  he  lay  beneath  the  stars.  He,  as  well  as 
his  grandfather  before  him,  appears  to  have  always  passed 
around  that  strong  rock  where  the  Jebusites  lived,  little  con- 
scious of  its  great  destiny,  and  only  once  coming  into  moment- 
ary sight  as  the  home  of  Melchisedek,  whence  he  goes  forth 
to  greet  Abraham  after  his  victory  over  the  kings  of  the  East. 
But,  south  of  the  Jerusalem  that  was  to  be,  Jacob  came  to  a 
place  which  was  to  witness  his  greatest  sorrow.  On  the  high- 
land a  little  north  of  Bethlehem,  at  a  place  called  Ephrath, 
Rachel  died  and  was  buried.  The  place  of  her  burial,  kept  in 
remembrance  by  successive  structures,  one  of  which,  of  com- 
paratively modern  construction,  can  be  seen  even  now,  is  un- 
questionably authentically  preserved.  She  could  not  be  car- 
ried to  Hebron,  it  would  seem ;  she  must  be  buried  by  the 
wayside,  where  she  fell.  The  next  stage  brings  him  to  famil- 
iar ground,  to  Hebron  and  Mamre,  and  they  become  his  home 
till  his  visit  to  Egypt.  His  sons  do  not  appear  to  have  re- 
pressed the  wish  to  return  and  feed  their  flocks  on  the  far 
richer  and  more  extensive  pasture-lands  of  the  north ;  and  we 
find  them  once  more  on  that  fertile  plain  of  Shechem,  tending 


i 


"i'lir'iipiiifwp 


JOSEPH  AT  DOTHAN.  53 

their  flocks,  wMle  Joseph  goes  ten  miles  farther  north-east- 
ward to  Dothan,  just  on  the  southern  border  of  the  vale  of 
Esdraelon.  This  place  was  brought  to  hght  by  Robmson  and 
Van  de  Velde,  only  fifteen  years  ago ;  the  traces  of  the  great 
ancient  road  running  southward  toward  Egypt  being  still  disr 
cernible. 


CHAPTER  III. 

EGYPT,  AND  THE  PASSAGE'  OF  THE  RED  SEA. 

Egypt  the  Mother  of  Civilization — Sesostris — The  Land  of  Goshen— Its  Boun- 
daries— Occupations  of  the  Hebrew  Slaves — The  Treasure  Cities — Suecoth 
— Etham — Tlie  Natural  Route  of  the  Israelites — Wliy  they  made  their 
Detour — The  Head  of  the  Red  Sea — The  Places  near  it — The  Crossing  of 
the  Gulf  of  Suez — Dr.  Bonar  and  Dr.  Robinson  on  the  Miracle  wrought  there. 

HE  scene  of  the  Bible  story  now  passes  from  Pales- 
tine to  Egypt.  That  strip  of  land,  but  a  few  miles 
wide,  and  lining  the  banks  of  the  Nile  with  emerald, 
was  the  mother  of  civilization.  Zoan,  in  Egypt,  lying  east  of 
the  Tanitic  mouth  of  the  Nile,  is  referred  to  in  the  Bible  as 
one  of  the  most  ancient  cities  in  the  world,  and  the  rise  of 
Egyptian  civilization  antedates  all  authentic  history.  The 
power  of  that  nation  culminated  during  the  time  of  the  He- 
brew sojourn  in  that  country ;  Sesostris,  the  greatest  and  most 
formidable  of  the  Egyptian  monarchs,  being  almost  unques- 
tionably one  of  the  Pharaohs  who  ruled  while  the  Jews  were  in 
Goshen.  It  brings  our  subject  out  from  the  shadowy  vagueness 
which  might  seem  to  rest  upon  it,  to  remember  that  in  all  great 
collections  of  Egyptian  antiquities,  such  as  that  at  Berlin,  for 
example,  the  features  of  that  mighty  monarch  are  preserved, 
colossal  in  size,  but  perfectly  well  kept,  and  unquestionably 
authentic.  Not  that  Rameses  the  Great,  or  Sesostris,  as  the 
Greeks  called  him,  was  the  king  of  Egypt  when  Joseph  went 
down  into  that  country ;  not  that  he  was  the  Pharaoh  who 
resisted  Moses'  demands ;  he  lived  between  Joseph  and  Moses, 
and  was  one  of  those  kings  whose  stern  hand  crushed  the 
chosen  people.     The  royal  residences  were  at  Memphis,  a 


PRESENTATION  OF  MOSES  TO  PHARAOH. 

From  a  beautiful  English  painting  by  Chapman. 


56  GOSHEN. 

little  s6uth  of  Cairo,  and  near  the  pyramids  (to  be  seen  on 
those  plains  even  in  Abraham's  time),  and  at  Zoan,  east  of 
the  Tanitic  mouth  of  the  Nile.  The  sacred  city,  the  seat  of 
learning,  the  place  where  Joseph  found  his  wife,  and  where 
Moses  was  educated,  was  at  On,  or  Heliojjolis,  about  ten  miles 
north-east  of  Cau-o ;  its  remains  are  to  be  discerned  even  at 
the  present  day,  though  in  a  state  of  great  decay.  The  tract 
which  most  interests  us,  however,  is  Goshen.  The  various 
hints  of  the  Bible,  when  brought  together  and  compared, 
enable  us  to  determine  the  location  of  that  fertile  tract.  It 
was  unquestionably  within  the  Lower  Delta ;  it  was  the 
country  which  lay  between  the  capitals  of  Egypt  and  Pales- 
tine ;  it  was  the  tract  on  the  extreme  eastern  frontier  of  the 
kingdom ;  it  was  but  three  days'  journey  from  the  Red  Sea ; 
it  embraced  some  one  or  more  of  the  Nile  mouths.  As  we 
learn  from  Ps.  Ixxviii.  12,  43,  Zoan  was  within  Goshen,  and 
this  city  lay  even  west  of  the  Pelusiac  mouth  of  the  Nile. 
The  repeated  references  to  the  use  of  the  river  take  away  all 
doubt  about  a  portion  of  the  Israelites'  dwelling  upon  its 
shores.  The  fish  which  they  ate,  the  food  which  they  raised, 
and  which  is  found  profusely  where  the  inundations  occur,  as 
well  as  the  express  allusions  to  watering  the  ground  with  the 
foot,  make  it  certain  'that  the  western  border  of  Goshen  was 
on  the  river.  The  distinct  statement  that  it  was  but  a  three- 
days'  march  from  one  of  the  cities  to  the  sea  proves,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  the  district  extended  a  considerable  distance 
to  the  eastward,  and  embraced  no  inconsiderable  share  of  that 
comparatively  infertile  country  where  the  desert  sands  and  the 
luxuriant  Nile  Valley  struggle  for  supremacy.  Its  southern 
limit  evidently  came  down  well-nigh  to  On,  or  Heliopolis, 
about  ten  miles  north,  as  already  intimated,  of  the  present  city 
of  Cairo ;  for  Joseph  says,  in  the  message  which  he  sends  to 
Jacob  (Gen.  xlv.  10),  "  Thou  shalt  dwell  in  the  land  of 
Goshen,  and  thou  shalt  be  near  me."  When  the  patriarchal 
family  and  the  dependants  came  down  to  Egypt,  Joseph  goes 
forth  "  to  meet  Israel,  his  father,  to  Goshen,"  showing  that 


58  GOSHEN   AND   THE   TREASURE-CITIES. 

the  district  lay  between  the  capital  and  southern  Palestine. 
That  tract,  which  even  in  its  present  neglect  manifests  that  it 
is  "  the  best  in  the  land,"  was  well  adapted  to  a  race  of  herds- 
men ;  and  the  abundant  pasturage  which  the  Hebrews'  flocks 
would  lind  would  even  surpass  what  had  been  seen  on  the 
fruitful  i)lains  of  Shechem.  The  Hebrews  were  useful  as  a 
kind  of  breakwater  against  the  irruptions  of  wild  Bedouin 
tribes ;  and  as  they  themselves  were  Bedouin  in  their  charac- 
teristics, they  would  be  skilled  in  all  the  arts  of  a  half-civilized 
warfare.  They  were,  therefore,  of  the  very  highest  service  to 
their  Egyptian  masters,  for  the  inroads  of  wild  Aciatic  tribes 
constituted  one  of  the  greatest  sc5urges  of  Egyptian  civiliza- 
tion. In  the  Greek  translation  of  the  Bible  made  in  Egypt 
by  the  Seventy,  while  the  memory  of  the  old  liistory  was  yet 
fresh,  the  word  translated  "  treasure-cities,"  in  the  account  of 
the  works  which  the  Hebrew  bondmen  wrought,  is  rendered 
"  fortified  cities,"  as  if  in  allusion  to  the  need  of  protection 
against  inroads  on  the  eastern  frontier.  Two  of  those  cities 
are  expressly  named, — Rameses  and  Pithom.  It  may  be  that 
archaeologists  are  mistaken  in  their  alleged  identification  of  the 
sites  of  those  two  cities,  yet  the  physical  character  of  the 
country  makes  it  impossible  to  mistake  their  approximate  situ- 
ation. A  little  north  of  Cairo,  the  lines  of  long  parallel  lime- 
stone cliffs  which  accompany  the  river  northward  to  this  point 
recede  from  each  other,  and  allow  space  for  the  Delta, — one 
of  the  lines  of  cliffs  running  away  to  the  north-east,  the  otlier 
to  the  north-west.  At  one  point,  nearly  east  of  the  spot 
where  the  Pelusiac  branch  of  the  Nile  diverges,  there  is  a 
narrow  break  in  this  line  of  cliffs,  and  a  valley  may  be  traced 
eastward  to  the  so-called  Bitter  Lakes  of  Suez.  Excellent 
pasturage  still  extends  up  this  valley,  and  here,  on  the  extreme 
border  of  what  was  Egypt  proper,  and  at  the  door  of  a  natu- 
ral avenue  into  the  Nile  Valley,  the  cities  of  Rameses  and 
Pithom  were  built.  Subsequent  ages  have  recognized  the 
value  of  that  same  natural  communication,  and  the  canal 
which  has  been  recently  opened  is  the  third  on  the  same  hne 


SUCCOTH   AND   ETHAM.  59 

which  has  connected  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea.  Here,  and 
here  alone,  in  this  valley  the  rich  basin  of  the  Nile'  shades 
away  by  imperceptible  gradations  into  the  desert.  Elsewhere 
the  hne  between  fertility  and  sterility  is  one  strictly  drawn : 
here  it  is  not.  And  thus  it  was  in  the  time  of  the  Exodus, 
when  the  Israelites  exchanged  the  rank  luxirriance  of  the  Nile 
country  for  Succoth,  the  place  of  scant  herbage,  the  place  of 
"  booths,"  and  then  for  Etham,  "  on  the  edge  of  the  wilder- 
ness." Here  transition  is  manifestly  depicted ;  but  this  tran- 
sition is  only  to  be  foimd  in  this  valley.  Those  w^ho  have  put 
Goshen  fiu-ther  south,  near  Cairo,  have  not  only  to  contend 
with  the  impossibility  of  passing  in  those  days  down  to  the 
Gulf  of  Suez,  but  also  with  the  want  of  that  gradual  shading 
away  of  Goshen  into  the  wilderness  which  the  allusions  to 
Succoth  and  Etham  bring  into  view. 

The  exact  locality  of  these  places,  as  well  as  of  those  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  Red  Sea,  is  not  known.  Rameses 
almost  unquestionably  lay  at  the  western  opening  of  the  valley 
that  runs  eastward  to  the  Bitter  Lakes.  A  collection  of  ruins 
is  pointed  out  near  to  the  village  of  Abbasah,  which  our 
countryman,  Rev.  Dr.  Samson,  one  of  the  most  careful  observ- 
ers who  have  investigated  the  subject,  believes  to  be  the 
remains  of  Rameses.  No  one  wishing  to  investigate  exhaust- 
ively the  geography  of  Goshen  and  its  treasure-cities  of  Rame- 
ses and  Pithom  can  pass  over  Dr.  Samson's  contributions  to 
"  The  Clmstian  Review  "  for  1849  and  1850.  From  that  pomt 
it  is  a  three  days'  journey,  thirty-five  miles,  to  the  head  of  the 
Gulf.  The  first  day's  journey  brought  them  to  Succoth,  a 
place  whose  name,  signifying  booths,  sufficiently  indicates  its 
most  striking  physical  character.  Doubtless  here  they  parted 
with  civilization,  and  passed  from  houses  to  tents,  by  the 
transitional  use,  for  a  night,  of  structures  which  should  par- 
take of  the  nature  of  both,  and  be  protected,  it  may  be,  with 
a  thin  covering  of  leaves.  It  is  easy  even  now  to  see  where 
such  an  encampment  would  be  naturally  reared,  and  equally 
easy  it  is  to  mark  the  spot  which  is  "  on  the  edge  of  the 


60  NATURAL  ROUTE   OF   THE  ISRAELITES. 

wilderness."  This  line  has  no  doubt  shifted  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent within  four  thousand  years ;  yet  it  may  be  approximately 
made  out;  and  where  the  grass  ceased  utterly,  there  was 
Ethara.  • 

The  natural  course  of  the  Israelites  was  not  directly  toward 
the  Red  Sea ;  it  lay  north  of  it,  and  was  unquestionably  known 
to  their  leader.  Moses  had  been  over  the  ground  before, 
possibly  often;  for  the  Egyptians  had  a  mining  colony  in 
Arabia,  not  far  from  Mt.  Sinai,  and  the  way  tliither  was  a 
well-beaten  track.  It  formed  no  part  of  his  plan,  however,  to 
lead  the  people  up  to  the  Promised  Land  by  the  route  which 
had  been  taken  by  Abraham  when  four  centuries  before  he 
had  come  down  to  Egypt  for  bread ;  which  had  been  taken 
too  by  the  Midianites  when  they  brought  Joseph  down ;  by 
the  sons  of  Jacob  and  by  Jacob  himself  when  they  came 
down  ;  and  by  Joseph  when  he  carried  his  father's  body  up  to 
Hebron  in  that  imposing  j)rocession  which  has  been  described 
in  the  closing  chapter  of  Genesis:  this  was  a  direct  route 
running  north-eastward,  not  far  from  the  Mediterranean  coast, 
and  not  passing  within  many  miles  of  the  Red  Sea.  The 
reason  why  that  route  was  not  taken  is  explicitly  stated  in  the 
Scriptures.  (Ex.  xiii.  17,  18.)  "  And  it  came  to  pass,  when 
Pharaoh  had  let  the  people  go,  that  God  led  them  not  through 
the  way  of  the  land  of  the  Philistines,  although  that  was 
near ;  for  God  said,  lest  peradv«nture  the  people  repent  when 
they  see  war,  and  they  return  to  Egypt.  But  God  led  the 
people  about  through  the  way  of  the  wilderness  of  the  Red 
Sea."  Their  direction  was  toward  the  south-east,  instead  of 
toward  the  north-east.  The  long  detour  which  Moses  pro- 
posed led  him  through  territory  with  which  he  was  perfectly 
familiar.  Forty  years  of  his  life  had  been  passed  in  that  des- 
ert country,  and  even  now  a  secluded  dell  close  by  the  tradi- 
tional Mt.  Sinai  bears  the  name  of  Moses'  father-in-law.  The 
real  home  of  the  Midianites  was  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
eastern  arm  of  the  Red  Sea,  it  is  true  ;  but  the  nomadic  habits 
of  those  days  took  Jethro  and  his  tribe  west  of  the  Gulf  of 


REASON   OF   THEIR   DETOUR.  61 

Akabah,  and  permitted  them  to  look  for  pasturage  even  in  the 
central  granitic  ridge  where  the  law  was  afterward  given  to 
Moses.  The  whole  country  was  doubtless  as  famihar  to  the 
Hebrew  lawgiver  as  it  is  now  to  any  Arab  sheik ;  he  knew 
every  wady,  every  spring,  every  mountain,  every  place  of 
pastiu-age.  Mt.  Serbal,  the  most  imposing,  though  by  no 
means  the  loftiest,  mountain  of  the  peninsula,  had  long  been 
a  hallowed  place.  It  had  been  the  resort  of  Phoenician  and 
Philistine  worshipers  even  before  Moses'  day,  and. was  doubt- 
less the  goal  of  that  pretended  pilgrimage  which  Moses  asked 
permission  of  Pharaoh  to  make  (Ex.  viii.  27) :  "  We  will  go 
three  days'  joiu-ney  into  the  wilderness,  and  sacrifice  to  the 
Lord  our  God." 

In  vie\^  of  the  fact  that  Moses  proposed  to  enter  Palestine 
by  a  long  detour,  in  order  that  the  training  of  the  desert  might 
disciplme  them,  and  transform  them  from  an  enervated,  effem- 
inate, leprous  race  into  hardy  and  energetic  soldiers,  equal  to 
the  great  task  of  conquest  before  them,  he  struck  out  in  the 
general  direction  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez.  Doubtless,  as  already 
remarked,  a  regular  road  ran  past  the  head  of  the  gulf  to  the 
Egyptian  mining  colony  of  Serabit  el  Khadem,  north-west  of 
Mt.  Serbal,  and  it  was  a  simple  matter  to  follow  it  and  double 
the  northern  extremity  of  the  gulf.  It  is  true,  the  Red  Sea 
extended  some  miles  farther  north  than  it  does  now ;  yet  near 
its  head  were  cities,  and  a  beaten  road  ran  eastward  into  the 
Sinai  Peninsula.  Much  difficulty  is  found  by  certain  biblical 
studeifts  in  accepting  the  story  of  the  sea's  opening  and  afford- 
ing deliverance  to  the  Israelites,  and  closing  in  upon  the  pur- 
suing Egyptians ;  but  there  is  an  antecedent  difficulty  which 
rises  even  before  we  reach  this.  There  are  three  places  men- 
tioned (Ex.  xiv.)  as  in  proximity  with  the  sea,— Migdol,  Pi- 
hahiroth,  and  Baalzephon.  The  location  of  the  second  of 
these  is  not  determined  ;  probably  it  is  undeterminable.  Mig- 
dol,  the  town  or  tower  which  the  Greeks  subsequently  called 
Magdalon,  was  at  some  distance  north  of  the  gulf.  Baal-ze- 
phon  appears  to  have  been  the  ridge  even  then  consecrated  to 


62  CROSSING  THE  RED   SEA. 

the  worship  of  Baal,  which  is  now  to  be  recognized  in  the 
bold  Jebel  Attakah,  running  south-eastwardly  down  to  the 
shore,  and  forming  in  its  eastern  extremity  a  striking  bluff. 
Between  this  ridge  and  the  sea  was  a  triangular  piece  of  land, 
on  some  part  of  which  was  Pi-hahiroth.  For  some  reason, 
entirely  unexplainable  on  any  theory  but  that  which  recog- 
nizes a  miraculous  intervention  in  parting  the  waters  of  the 
sea,  Moses  did  not  lead  the  host  of  the  Israehtes  along  the 
well-beaten  road  which  doubled  the  head  of  the  gulf,  but  drew 
them  into  that  triangle  which  was  bordered  on  the  right  by 
Baal-zephon,  or  Jebel  Attakah,  on  the  left  by  the  sea,  and  in 
the  rear  by  the  great  Egyptian  army.  It  was,  therefore,  ap- 
propriate for  Pharaoh  to  say,  "  They  are  entangled  in  the  land ; 
the  wilderness  hath  shut  them  in." 

The  place  where  the  crossing  was  effected  was  limited  to 
the  few  miles  between  the  point  where  the  bold  bluff  of  Jebel 
Attakah  runs  down  to  the  sea,  and  the  ancient  head  of  the 
gulf,  a  few  miles  north  of  the  present  city  of  Suez.  Every- 
where there  the  water  is  shallow,  and  landings  are  at  the  pres- 
ent day  only  effected  by  means  of  boats,  and  with  much  diffi- 
culty. It  is  a  safe  conjecture,  that  the  passage  was  made  very 
near  the  site  of  Suez.  Dovibtless,  wind  and  tide  were  agents 
in  the  piling-up  of  the  waters,  and  their  subsequent  return ; 
the  Scripture  itself  states,  that  the  "  Lord  caused  the  sea  to 
go  back  by  a  strong  east  wind  all  that  night."  Dr.  Bonar,  in 
his  excellent  book  called  "The  Desert  of  Sinai,"  accuses  the 
learned  and  pious  Robinson  of  trying  to  weaken  the  fdi^ce  of 
the  miracle  by  ascribing  it  to  the  wind  and  tide ;  but  not  so 
do  I  read  the  work  of  our  countryman :  on  the  contrary,  he 
stands  strongly  on  the  ground  that  a  miracle  was  wrought,  but 
simply  claims  that  in  working  this  great  wonder  God  brought 
the  winds  and  the  waves  into  subjection  to  his  will,  and  made 
them  the  ministers  in  executing  his  mighty  purpose. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  SINAI  PENINSULA. 

A  Toilful  Pilgrimage — Physical  Aspect  of  tlie  "  Wilderness  "—The  Triangle  of 
Land— Rugged  Sublimity  of  Nature — A  Great  Mass  of  Molten  Rock  Sud' 
denly  Cooled— The  Tih  Plateau— Its  Wall  of  Mountains— The  Dead  Sea 
Gorge— Captain  Allen's  Theory— The  Results  of  Modern  Science — A  Land 
Without  a  History — Unchanged  Aspect — Want  of  Vegetation— A  Land  of 
Pilgrims — Literature  of  the  Desert — The  Bitter  Springs  of  Marah — The 
Sweet  Springs  of  EHm — The  "Goodly"  Vale — A  Tedious  Climb— A  Deso- 
late Plain— Desert  of  Sin— The  One  Beautiful  Valley  of  the  Whole  Region 
— Serbal,  the  Mountain  of  Mystery — The  Written  Characters  on  the  Rock — 
Approach  to  Sinai. 

E  have  now  taken  the  Hebrews  back  into  Asia,  their 
true  home.  Our  next  step  will  be  to  follow  them 
in  their  long  and  toilful  pilgrimage.  It  is  true  that 
they  reached  the  borders  of  the  promised  land  m  about  a  year 
and  a  half  after  going  out  from  Egypt,  of  which  time  a  year 
was  spent  in  the  shadow  of  Mt.  Sinai.  The  other  thu-ty-eight 
years  of  then*  wanderings  were  passed  in  a  limited  region  on 
the  eastern  and  north-eastern  border  of  the  peninsula,  and  in  a 
country  of  almost  no  resources,  and  scarcely  superior  to  the 
deserts  of  Shur  or  Sinai. 

Before  attempting  to  follow  the  journey  of  the  Israehtes 
through  the  "wilderness,"  let  me  briefly  sketch  the  physical 
character  of  the  whole  tract  known  as  the  Peninsula  of  Sinai. 
Between  the  two  arms  of  the  Red  Sea  known  as  the  Gulfs  of 
Akabah  and  Suez,  there  is  a  triangular  piece  of  land,  whose 
base-line  is  about  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  in  length,  and 
runs  from  the  city  of  Suez  to  the  fortress  of  Akabah.  The 
lower  portion  of  this  triangle  is  a  mass  of  granitic  mountains, 


64  SUBLEVHTY   OF   THE   DESERT. 

broken  up  into  the  most  ii-regular  and  fantastic  forms,  and  yet 
having  a  manifest  center,  the  striking  group  of  peaks  of  which 
Mt.  Sinai  is  one.  From  this  central  knot  of  mountains  there 
are  various  wadies,  or  waterless  river-courses,  running  away 
to  the  sea,  and  forming  natural  means  of  communication  be- 
tween the  various  parts  of  this  wild  and  formidable  mass  of 
rock.  Perhaps  nowhere  else  in  the  world  is  the  face  of  nature 
more  ruggedly  sublime  than  here.  The  mountains  met  there 
are  of  no  ordinary  hight ;  the  loftiest  one,  Om  Shaumer,  be- 
ing nine  thousand  thr^e  hundred  feet  in  altitude,  and  St.  Cath- 
erine being  eight  thousand  seven  hundred.  Standing  on  the 
summit  of  either  one  of  these,  the  Gulf  of  Akabah  is  plainly 
seen  on  the  east,  and  that  of  Suez  on  the  west,  neither  of  them 
but  a  few  miles  away.  The  country  itself  seems  as  if  some 
gigantic  convulsion  once  passed  over  it,  heaving  up  huge  waves 
of  molten  granite,  and  then  cooling  them  at  once.  They  have 
retained  the  ancient  sharpness  ;  and  such  is  the  drjTiess  of  the 
ak,  and  the  want  of  great  and  wearing  rains,  added  to  the 
natural  hardness  of  the  rock,  that  time  has  exerted  no  cor- 
rosive influence,  and  the  aspect  of  the  country  can  scarcely  be 
changed  from  what  it  was  when  the  Israelites  passed  through. 
North  of  this  triangle,  which  occupies  a  good  portion  of  the 
peninsula  proper,  there  is  an  elevated  plateau  of  hmestone, 
the  southern  border  of  which  is  an  almost  precipitous  wall  of 
rock,  four  thousand  feet  in  hight.  This  does  not  run  due  east 
and  west ;  it  forms  a  rude  rim  around  the  southern,  south- 
western, and  south-eastern  sides  of  the  plateau.  The  surface 
of  this  elevated  plateau  is  undulating,  and,  in  its  north-east 
portion,  rises  into  a  second  or  superimposed  plateau,  which 
gradually  settles  away  northward  to  meet  the  thin  and  scanty 
pasture  lands  of  the  "south  country,"  the  ancient  patriarchal 
home.  East  of  this  great  plateau  runs  northward  and  south- 
ward the  desolate  and  arid  trough  of  the  Arabah,  connectmg 
the  Dead  Sea  and  the  Gidf  of  Akabah,  and  forming  a  continu- 
ation of  that  great  cleft,  or  depressed  chasm,  which  connects 
the  Red  Sea  with  Lake  Tiberias.     It  was  supposed,  until  a 


66  THE  DEAD   SEA  GORGE. 

very  recent  date,  that  the  lower  portion  of  the  Ghor,  or  Jor- 
dan gorge,  \yas  so  far  depressed  below  the  level  of  the  ocean, 
that,  if  it  were  possible  to  run  a  canal  across  the  plain  of  Es- 
draelon,  and  onward,  between  Gilboa  and  Tabor,  till  it  should 
reach  the  Jordan,  the  entrance  of  the  Mediterranean  would  at 
once  form  a  noble  ship-canal  between  Lake  Tiberias  and  the 
Red  Sea ;  and  it  is  not  many  years  since  Capt.  Allen,  of  the 
English  Navy,  wrote  a  book  called  "  The  Dead  Sea  a  New 
Route  to  India,"  in  which  he  discussed  this  theory  in  extenso. 
Later  investigations  have  shown,  however,  that  the  land  east 
of  the  plain  of  Esdraelon  is  so  elevated  that  a  canal  would  be 
impracticable  at  that  point ;  and,  moreover,  that  could  the 
Jordan  be  flooded  in  this  way,  could  that  long  defile  between 
the  Sea  of  Galilee  and  the  Dead  Sea  be  converted  mto  a  deep 
lake,  and  the  Jatter  made  many  feet  deeper  than  it  is,  the  Ara- 
bah,  the  trough  running  from  the  Dead  Sea  southward  to  the 
Gulf  of  Akabah,  instead  of  being  all  the  way  depressed  to  the 
extent  that  it  has  been  supposed,  rises  at  its  liighest  portion 
to  an  altitude  (eight  hundred  feet)  altogether  precluding  the 
possibility  of  its  being  submerged.  Measurements  have  been 
made  repeatedly  with  a  view  to  ascertain  this  fact ;  and  at 
last  it  has  been  put  beyond  the  possibility  of  error. 

The  physical  character  of  the  Sinai  Peninsula  is  little 
changed,  as  remarked  before,  from  what  it  was  at  the  time  of 
the  Exodus.  It  is  a  land  without  a  history ;  the  only  point 
where  it  links  itself  in  with  the  changing  destinies  of  the  world 
is  at  the  time  when  the  Israelites  sojourned  within  it.  It  always 
had  a  scanty,  wandering  population  ;  and  the  few  thousands 
of  Arabs  who  inhabit  the  peninsula  to-day  are  about  as  nu- 
merous, probably,  and  live  in  precisely  the  same  manner,  as 
the  Amalekites  of  old,  who  had  possession  of  the  pasture  land 
of  the  country.  It  is  a  region  which  always  has  been  with- 
out houses ;  the  little  ecclesiastical  city  of  Pharan,  now  in 
ruins,  not  being  a  real  exception,  so  foreign  was  it  to  the  whole 
character  of  the  land.  It  has  no  soil  capable  of  continuous 
and  profitable  cultivation ;  the  long  and  fertile  valley  known 


WATER   AND   SOIL   OF   THE   DESERT.  67 

as  the  Wady  Feii-an,  at  the  foot  of  Mt.  Serbal,  not  having 
breadth  and  scope  enough  to  rei)ay  for  colonizing  it  alone. 
A  great  part  of  the  country  is  so  sterile  as  to  fill  the  mind  of 
travelers  with  dismay ;  there  is  no  grass,  no  thrifty  trees, 
except  in  Wady  Feiran  and  at  the  Convent  of  Mt.  Sinai, 
nothing  but  acacia-bushes,  and  furzy,  thin,  aromatic  shrubs. 
After  the  rains  of  winter,  it  is  true,  a  quick  vegetation  springs 
up ;  but  the  sun  and  the  subsequent  drought  cause  it  to  wither 
and  utterly  vanish.  There  are  comparatively  few  springs  in 
the  country ;  those  which  emerge  from  the  lunestone  tract  are 
almost  intolerably  bad,  while  those  issuing  from  the  southern 
granitic  tract  are  sweet  and  refreshing.  The  natural  channels 
of  communication  across  the  country  are  in  one  sense  numer- 
ous :  in  another  they  are  not  so ;  for,  although  the  number  of 
unimportant  wadies  is  large,  yet  the  really  effective  lines  of  in- 
tercourse are  so  few  and  so  striking  that  there  is  no  difficulty 
whatever  in  following  them.  Despite,  therefore,  the  want  of 
historical  monuments,  and  the  want  of  a  nation  there  which 
perpetuates  the  history  of  the  past,  the  pliysical  character  of 
the  country  is  such  that  the  simple  narrative  of  the  Bible  al- 
lows us  to  follow,  with  tolerable  closeness,  and  with  a  sense 
of  certitude,  the  line  of  the  Israelites'  march.  From  the  head 
of  the  Gulf  of  Suez  there  is  a  roughened  plain,  about  ten 
miles  in  width,  running  southward  for  several  miles,  having 
the  sea  on  the  west,  and  the  precipitous  edge  of  the  great  Tih 
plateau  on  the  east.  Moses  and  the  Israelites  must  have  fol- 
lowed this  plain  ;  there  is  no  alternative.  South  of  this  plain 
the  system  of  great  wadies  is  so  simple  that  we  have  little  if 
any  difficulty  in  tracing  them  to  Sinai.  From  Sinai,  north-east- 
ward, the  task  of  following  them  is  much  more  difficult,  it  is 
true  ;  but  there  are  certain  landmarks  there  which  make  it  tol- 
erably easy  to  determine  the  course  of  the  wanderers.  I  need 
not  say  that  the  word  wilderness,  used  almost  invariably  in  the 
Bible  to  signify  the  Sinai  Peninsula,  does  not  correspond  at  all 
with  our  use  of  the  same  term.  To  many  of  us  it  suggests 
the  idea  of  dense  woodland ;  it  should  imply  the  very  reverse, 


68  LITERATURE   OF  THE   DESERT. 

— a  tract  utterly  destitute  of  vegetation,  and  wholly  desert, 
sterile,  respulsive.  Nor  should  it  convey  the  impression  of  a 
sandy  waste.  With  the  exception  of  the  limited  tract  known  as 
Ramleh,  south  of  the  Tih  plateau,  there  is  no  sandy  district 
in  the  whole  peninsula.  The  country  is  stony  and  pebbly, 
but  not  sandy. 

Arabia  Petrsea,  as  this  country  is  sometimes  called,  is  a  land 
which  has  always  been  interesting  to  pilgrims.  As  early  as 
the  time  of  Elijah,  to  go  to  Horeb  was  a  journey  of  devotion ; 
and  the  old  prophet  is  seen  going  down  thither  to  commune 
with  God  in  the  place  which  had  been  consecrated  centuries 
before  his  day.  Very  early  in  the  history  of  the  Christian 
church,  the  Sinaitic  region  became  a  sacred  resort ;  and  Ara- 
bian geographers  and  Christian  travelers  have  explored  it  in 
all  ages.  The  first  volume  -of  Ritter's  "  Comparative  Geogra- 
phy of  Palestine  and  the  Sinaitic  Penmsula  "  is  devoted,  in  a 
large  measure,  to  the  tracing  of  the  routes  of  those  who  have 
carefully  explored  the  land ;  and  no  man  in  our  time  has  had 
the  patience  to  sift  and  compare  their  accounts  with  .the  care 
and  fidelity  and  ability  of  the  great  German  geographer.  He 
has  reviewed  all  the  Roman  itineraries,  examined  the  Pentin- 
ger  Tables,  read  all  the  Arabian  and  Greek  geographers,  and 
investigated  the  whole  Christian  literature  of  the  subject.  In 
my  translation  of  his  important  work  on  the  peninsula  I  have 
j'etained  all  that  could  illustrate  the  Bible ;  and  yet  no  one 
can  adequately  measure  the  enormous  erudition  of  Carl  Ritter 
who  does  not  look  into  the  original  and  see  what  he  has  culled 
out  to  illustrate  the  geography  of  Arabia  Petrsea  as  it  is  con- 
nected with  extra-biblical  literature. 

What  Ritter  has  done  for  this  department,  our  countryman, 
Dr.  Robinson,  only  second  to  Ritter  in  his  command  of  the 
literature  of  Sinai  and  Palestine,  has  done  for  original  research 
on  the  spot.  Ritter  was  never  in  the  Holy  Land ;  Robinson 
was  the  most  acute  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  learned 
investigator  who  has  ever  gone  thither.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  Robinson's  Biblical  Researches  are  worth  all  the 


JOURNEY   or   THE   ISRAELITES.  69 

records  of  travel  in  the  Holy  Land  from  the  tune  of  the 
Saviour  down  to  the  time  when  he  published  his  work.  And 
this  I  say  in  full  recognition  of  the  value  of  Seetzen's,  Irby 
and  Mangles',  Burckhardt's,  Niebuhr's,  Russegger's,  and  Rup- 
pell's  thorough,  accurate,  and  hard-gained  results,  and  in 
recognition,  too,  of  a  certain  degree  of  merit  to  be  ascribed 
to  such  writers  as  Felix  Fabri,  Cosmas  Indicopleustes,  Pietro 
della  Valle,  Bucldngham,  Pococke,  and  Monro.  Yet  all  can- 
did students  of  biblical  geograpliy  know  that  when  Robinson 
ca;me  upon  the  field,  he  observed  so  closely,  with  such  ample 
preparation,  and  such  acumen,  that  the  publication  of  his 
work  produced  a  revolution  in  the  department.  He  has  been 
worthily  followed ;  but  such  works  as  Stanley's,  Schubert's, 
Tristram's,  Wilson's,  Porter's,  Laborde's  even,  and  Thomson's, 
would  hardly  have  been  possible  had  Robinson  not  gone  be- 
fore. Indeed,  he  did  his  work  so  thoroughly  that  others  have 
had  but  little  to  do  except  to  glean  in  the  field  which  he  har- 
vested. With  the  exception  of  a  few  narrow  men  who  adhere 
closely  to  the  monkish  traditions  respecting  holy  places,  Euro- 
pean scholars  place  just  as  high  value  on  Robinson  as  we 
Americans  can  do :  indeed,  much  more,  for  he  is  really  only 
appreciated  fully  in  Eui'ope.  I  think  I  can  not  be  wrong  m 
saying,  that,  in  the  judgment  of  Enghsh  and  German  schol- 
ars, Edward  Robinson  is  the  greatest  name  that  has  sprung 
up  among  us ;  and  the  preface  of  almost  every  new  work  on 
Biblical  antiquities  echoes  thei  words  of  Ritter  and  Stanley 
respecting  the  amazing  extent  and  accuracy  of  Robinson''s 
investigations. 

Having  briefly  sketched  the  physical  character  of  the  Sina- 
itic  peninsula,  and  alluded  to  the  literature  of  the  subject,  let 
me  enter  into  some  detail  respecting  the  journey  of  the  Is- 
raelites through  the  land.  The  first  part  of  the  way  is  un- 
mistakable ;  it  ran  along  that  undulating  plain  which  has 
already  been  referred  to  as  lying  between  the  lofty  limestone 
wall  on  the  east  and  the  sea  on  the  west.  Northward  and 
southward,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  the  Israelites  could  see 


70  THE   BITTER   SPRINGS   OF  MARAH. 

confronting  them  that  giant  barricade,  rising  to  the  altitude 
of  about  four  thousand  feet.  To  ascend  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  such  a  number  of  people,  although  the  regular 
Mecca  caravans  now  climb  to  the  top  by  a  natural  pass,  and 
strike  directly  eastward  across  the  high  plateau,  descending 
again  on  the  eastern  margin,  not  far  from  the  head  of  the  Gulf 
of  Akabah.  The  Israelites,  however,  did  not  attempt  this, 
but  followed  the  plain  along  the  shore.  It  is  a  cheerless  and 
most  inhospitable  country.  There  are  some  tolerable  springs 
near  the  place  where  they  crossed  the  sea,  still  known  as  the 
springs  of  Moses,  shaded  by  palms,  and  a  favorite  resort  to-day 
for  the  people  of  Suez,  who,  in  the  absence' of  better  attrac- 
tions, elevate  that  scanty  oasis  into  the  rank  of  their  fashion- 
able watering-place. 

But  from  that  point  for  many  miles  southward,  for  a  three 
days'  journey  of  the  slowly-moving  Israelite  host,  there  are 
no  supplies  of  water,  and  not  a  plant  or  a  slirub  which  could 
in  the  slightest  degree  satisfy  the  hunger  of  man  or  beast. 
The  Israelites,  who  had  so  recently  left  the  luxurious  vaUey  of 
the  Nile,  were  sorely  tried  even  at  the  very  start ;  indeed,  there 
are  few  spots  in  the  whole  peninsula  which  would  have  more 
disheartened  them  than  this  barren  plain  along  the  sea.  The 
site  of  the  fountains  of  Marah,  the  bitter  waters  which  they 
could  not  drink,  is  now  easily  traced  ;  and  mdeed,  the 

name  stiU  clings  to  the  spot :  and  not  only  do  travelers  speak 
•of  the  Ain  Howarah,  but  of  the  Ain  Amarah,  almost  side  by 
side,  whose  waters  are  only  used  from  sheer  necessity.  All  the 
springs  which  flow  fi:om  that  limestone  soil  are  bad,  but  none 
are  intolerable  excepting  those  which  are  first  encountered 
after  leaving  Ain  Musa,  opposite  Suez.  And  these  are  the 
ones  which  correspond  with  the  Marah  fountains  of  Scripture. 
Still  farther  on,  about  one  day's  journey  southward,  are  the 
well-shaded  and  numerous  springs  of  Wadies  Ghurundel,  Ilseit 
and  Tayibeh,  whose  palm-trees  are  still  the  '^ht  of  all  trav- 
elers. These  were  threescore  and  ten  in  number  when  the 
Israelites  passed  that  way ;  they  are  variously  counted  by  the 


;i^         i|i|l' l||iil,if!  )!%'  \ 


Inl    !'' 


^M ., 


llil!i||tllill^ 


ELIM,  THE   WELLS   OF   REFRESHMENT.  73 

explorers  of  our  own  day,  but  are  not  widely  different  from 
the  old  number.  The  taste  of  the  water  is  not  markedly  dif- 
ferent from  that  found  at  the  old  springs  of  Marah  ;  yet  nearly 
all  agree  that  the  preference  is  to  be  given  to  that  of  Elim. 
The  Scripture  does  not  assert  nor  even  imply  that  that  of 
Elim  was  pleasant ;  it  is  an  unwarranted  inference — which  has 
been  drawn  from  the  obviously  attractive  character  of  the 
place  where  they  made  their  first  long  encampment— ^that  the 
water  of  Elim  was  sweeter  than  that  of  Marah.  That  it  is 
somewhat  more  agreeable  is  asserted  by  travelers ;  yet  the 
difference  is  not  marked :  the  same  physical  cause  which  con- 
trols the  one  controls  the  other  also.  In  the  midst  of  the 
attractions  of  Elim  the  Israelites  tarried  a  month  and  a  half. 
The  place  of  their  chief  encampment  was  doubtless  in  the 
broad,  open,  fair  wady  known  still  as  the  "  goodly,"  or  Wady 
Tapbeh.  It  runs  downward  to  the  sea,  and  has  a  fine  open 
view  of  the  opposite  coast-land  of  Egypt,  and  the  intensely 
blue  waters  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez,  a  good  way  northward  and 
southward.  It  has  been  the  custom  of  some  writers  to  assume 
that  the  single  Wady  of  Ghurundel  is  the  Elim  of  Scripture  ; 
but  the  requisitions  of  so  vast  a  host  as  that  of  the  Israelites 
during  a  sojourn  of  more  than  a  month  make  it  almost  neces- 
sary to  infer  that  they  distributed  themselves  over  all  the 
fertile  tracts  in  the  immediate  neighborhood. 

From  Elim  there  was  a  tedious  and  difiicult  passage  to  the 
Wilderness  of  Sin.  They  could  either  have  passed  by  narrow 
and  obstructed  defiles,  or  round  about,  as  some  travelers  do, 
by  a  narrow  and  dangerous  path  running  between  the  rocks 
and  the  sea.  Here  is  the  natural  boundary  between  the  Des- 
ert of  Shur  and  the  Desert  of  Sin.  The  latter  is  a  desolate 
plain,  about  twelve  mUes  in  length,  and  known  to-day  as  El 
Murkah.  Little  water  is  found  upon  it,  and  what  there  is,  is 
bitter.  It  is  a  place  which  one  can  see  at  a  glance  would 
sorely  try  the  Israelites,  and  compel  them  to  cry  out,  "  Would 
to  God  we  had  died  by  the  hand  of  the  Lord  in  the  land  of 

Egypt,  when  we  sat  by  the  flesh-pots,  and  when  we  did  eat 
5 


74  THE   THREE   ROUTES   TO   SINAI. 

bread  to  the  full ;  for  ye  have  brought  us  forth  into  this  wilder- 
ness to  kill  this,  whole  assembly  with  hunger."  It  is  noticea- 
ble that  it  was  in  tliis  desert,  where  the  tamarisk-tree  is  not 
found,  where,  in  fact,  there  is  no  vegetation,  that  the  supply 
of  manna  first  appeared. 

From  the  plain  of  El  Murkah,  the  Wilderness  of  Sin,  there 
are  three  ways  which  might  have  been  taken.  One  of  these 
passes  near  the  base  of  the  great  rock-waU  of  the  Tih  plateau, 
runs  near  the  ancient  EgyjDtian  mining  colony  of  Serabit  el 
Khadem, — whose  ruins  are  still  distinctly  visible,  and  which 
was  probably  a  busy  scene  at  the  time  of  the  Exodus, — soon 
after  traverses  the  sandy  waste  of  Debbet  er  Ramleh,  and 
then,  by  a  difficult  and  narrow  hne  of  wadies,  or  rock  valleys, 
runs  down  to  the  open  plain  in  front  of  the  traditional  Mt. 
Sinai.  This  led  the  Israelites  toward  the  left.  Another  way 
ran  along  the  borders  of  the  sea  to  the  plam  El  Kaa,  which 
lies  between  the  whole  granitic  mountain-mass  at  the  south 
of  -the  peninsula,  and  the  sea ;  and  from  this  plain,  by  way  of 
the  important  Wady  Hebran,  up  to  Mt.  Sinai.  This  would 
cause  them  to  bear  to  the  right,  and  then  to  take  a  sharp  tui'n 
to  the  left.  There  still  is  a  middle  course.  They  may  have 
crossed  the  Desert  of  Sin,  entered  the  romantic  valley  known 
as  Shellal,  and  passed  by  it  into  the  long  and  curious  ravine 
known  as  Wady  Mukatteb,  or  Valley  of  the  Inscriptions ; 
thence  into  the  fair,  fertile,  and  well-watered  Wady  Feiran, 
and  directly  to  the  base  of  Mt.  Sinai.  There  is  little  or  no 
doubt  that  the  latter  was  the  one  chosen  ;  it  has  every  advan- 
tage in  its  favor, — it  is  the  most  direct,  the  best  supphed  with 
shade  and  water,  and  the  one  which  is  most  in  harmony  with 
the  Scripture  narrative.  The  first  of  the  three  ways  is  rocky, 
scantily  supplied  with  springs,  and  longer  than  the  last ;  the 
second  is  much  longer  and  much  harder ;  the  last  is  the  one 
which  is  now  assumed  by  all  later  observers  as  the  route  of  the 
Israelites. 

Two  places  are  then  mentioned  as  the  scenes  of  temporary 
encampment, — Dophkah  and  Alush:   no  traces  of  them  re- 


76  A   BEAUTIFUL   VALE. 

main,  but  they  were  unquestionably  on  or  near  the  plain  El 
Murkali.  But  passing  that,  we  come  to  more  explicit  allu- 
sions, and  to  scenes  .of  even  greater  interest.  In  the  well- 
watered  and  palm-shaded  Wady  Feiian,  du-ectly  at  the  base 
of  the  imposing  five-peaked  Serbal, — a  sacred  mountain  for 
long  ages  even  when  the  Israelites  passed  by  its  foot, — there 
was  the  encampment  of  a  part  of  the  numerous  and  widely- 
scattered  Amalekites.  They  were  just  such  a  race,  doubtless, 
as  the  strongest  and  fiercest  of  the  Arab  tribes  of  the  pres- 
ent day.  They  knew  of  the  approach  of  the  Israelites,  and 
predicted  with  certainty,  that,  if  a  stand  were  not  made,  the 
delightful  paradise  which  they  inhabited  would  be  wrested 
from  them,  and  its  clear  brook  and  lofty  palms  become  the 
possession  of  this  host  of  strangers.  This  was  the  reason  of 
the  stand  which  they  made ;  this  the  cause  of  that  noted 
battle.  The  Israelites  advanced  along  that  wonderful  Valley 
of  Inscriptions,  Wady  Mukatteb,  whose  walls  are  written  over 
with  those  mysterious  and  undeciphered  hieroglyphics,  pro- 
voking the  curiosity  of  travelers  more  than  any  other  object 
in  the  whole  peninsula,  and  traced  more  or  less  numerousl}'- 
on  every  important  mountain  and  rock-wall  in  the  land,  with 
the  single  exception  of  Mt.  Sinai.  From  Wady  Mukatteb 
they  passed  into  Wady  Feiran ;  the  place  where  they  are  con- 
nected being,  it  would  seem,  the  site  of  Rephidim.  At  the 
very  foot  of  Serbal,  and  rising  distinctly  in  view  of  those  who 
stand  in  the  valley  known  as  Feiran,  is  a  low  but  well-marked 
hill,  on  which  Moses,  Aaron,  and  Hur  appear  to  have  stood 
during  the  battle.  The  victory  of  the  Israelites  put  them  in 
possession  of  the  most  paradisaical  spot  in  the  whole  penin- 
sula. For  more  than  a  month  and  a  half  they  remained  in 
that  fertile  vale.  The  Egj^tian  colony  at  Serabit  el  Khadem 
was  not  far  from  them  ;  but  not  a  hint  is  given  in  the  Bible  to 
indicate  whether  the  two  races  came  at  all  into  contact.  Yet 
visitors  came  from  Midian,  east  of  the  Gulf  of  Akabah,  with 
an  errand  of  great  import  to  the  Israehtes.  It  is  a  curious 
fact  that  the  polity  which  Jethro  imparted  to  Moses,  his  son- 


AN   IMPOSING   MOUNTAIN.  77 

in-law,  is  singularly  like  that  which  prevails  among  the  Bed- 
oums  of  the  present  time.  The  taking  away  of  that  single 
responsibility  which  was  slowly  crushing  the  strength  of  the 
great  lawgiver  by  overtaxing  his  power,  was  followed  by  that 
delegation  of  trust  to  rulers  of  thousands,  hundreds,  fifties, 
and  tens,  which  is  a  marked  feature  of  Arab  polity ;  and 
every  line  in  the  description  of  the  interview  of  Moses  and 
Jethro  is  faithful  to  the  experience  of  all  close  observers  of 
the  Bedouin  character.  It  has  been  supposed  by  many,  and 
by  some  too  whose  opinions  are  entitled  to  the  most  respectful 
consideration,^that  Mt.  Serbal,  the  most  striking  by  far  in  the 
whole  peninsula,  is  the  Sinai  of  the  Bible.  There  is  httle  or 
no  doubt  that  that  was  a  holy  mountain  at  the  time  of  the  Exo- 
dus, and  that  it  was  the  place  whither  not  only  Phoenicians  and 
Philistines  resorted,  but  Eg}'ptians  as  well,  for  the  purpose  of 
sacrifice.  It  has  been  a  hallowed  spot  in  modern  time ;  the 
remains  of  altars  may  be  seen  on  the  summit,  and  the  ecclesi- 
astical city  of  Pharan,  the  walls  of  which  are  yet  standing, 
was  at  its  base.  It  is  the  place  to  which,  in  all  probability,  as 
has  already  been  remarked,  Moses  wished  to  go  to  sacrifice,  a 
three  days'  journey  in  the  wilderness.  Some  have  thought 
that  Horeb  is  Serbal,  and  Sinai  the  well-known  sacred  moun- 
tain ten  miles  farther  west ;  others,  with  more  reason,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  make  Horeb  a  generic  word  comprising  that 
whole  region  embracing  both  Sinai  and  Serbal.  Still,  after 
giving  due  weight  to  the  argiuuents  of  Lepsius,  that  Serbal, 
the  sacred  mountain  of  that  region  in  the  most  ancient  time, 
was  the  scene  of  the  lawgiving,  I  must  admit  that  the  hints 
given  in  the  Bible  do  not  apply  so  well  to  it  as  to  the  tradi- 
tional mountain  of  Sinai.  I  know  that  Serbal  is  the  most  im- 
posing mountain  ;  but  it  is  by  no  means  the  loftiest,  it  being 
but  six  thousand  three  hundred  feet  high,  while  the  traditional 
Sinai  is  more  than  eight  thousand.  Besides,  the  delightful 
Wady  Feiran  at  its  base  can  not  be  confounded  with  the 
Wilderness  of  Sinai.  The  Bible  says  (Ex.  xix.  1),  after  its 
account  of  the  battle  with  the  Amalekites  and  the  interview 


78  APPROACHING   SINAI. 

with  Jethro,  manifestly  in  Wady  Feiran,  "  In  the  third  month, 
when  the  children  of  Israel  were  gone  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  the  same  day  came  they  into  the  wilderness  of  Sinai. 
For  they  were  departed  from  Rephidim,  and  were  come  to 
the  desert  of  Sinai,  and  had  pitched  in  the  wilderness ;  and 
there  Israel  camped  before  the  mount." 


CHAPTER  V. 

MOUNT  SINAI,  AND  THE  YEARS  OF  WANDERING. 

The  Broad,  Curved  "Valley  called  Wady  Sheikh— Pass  of  the  Winds— The  Plain 
before  Sinai  a  Lofty,  Craggy  Pile— A  Wall  of  Rock— Form  and  Structure  of 
the  Mountain — Discovery  of  the  Sinaitic  Manuscript  of  the  New  Testament 
by  Prof  Tischendorf— The  Convent  of  the  Forty — Convent  of  St.  Catharine 
— Scene  of  the  Israelites'  Encampment — Moses'  Ascent — The  Wilderness 
of  Sinai — What  Grows  there — Silence,  of  the  Desert — Effect  of  a  Thunder- 
storm— Elijah's  Chapel — View  from  Sinai — The  Stay  of  the  Israelites  around 
the  Mount — Their  Journey  Northward — The  Spies — Kadesh  Barnea — Scene 
of  the  First  Contest — Region  of  the  Edomites — Aaron's  Burial-place — Route 
of  the  Spies — Preliminary  Survey  of  Palestine — Petra — ^Approach  to  the 
"Promised  Land." 

ROM  the  foot  of  Serbal,  and  the  luxuriant  verdure 
of  Wady  Feiran,  there  runs  a  broad,  curving  valley, 
the  largest  and  most  important  in  the  whole  penin- 
sula, bearing  the  name  of  Wady  Sheikh.  It  is  a  continually- 
ascending  way,  and  leads  to  a  plain  from  which  rises  the  group 
of  mountains,  Ed  Deir,  St.  Catherine,  Sinai,  and  Om  Shaumer. 
From  Serbal  to  Sinai  there  is  a  more  direct  but  frightfully 
precipitous  and  rocky  path,  the  Nubh  Hawy,  or  Pass  of  the 
Winds,  whose  difficulties  travelers  agree  in  regarding  as  the 
most  formidable  in  the  peninsula.  The  broader  and  longer 
one  of  these  was  doubtless  taken  by  the  main  body  of  the 
Israelites;  and  there  is  found  in  it,  even  now,  no  scanty 
amount  of  pastiu^age  for  flocks.  Emerging  from  the  broad 
mouth  of  Wady  Sheikh,  the  traveler  stands  on  the  Desert  of 
Sinai.  A  plain  is  seen,  vast  in  size  when  one  thinks  how  rare 
it  is  to  meet  any  continuous  tract  in  that  broken  and  rocky 
country,  for  it  embraces  no  less  than  a  square  mile.  At  one 
extremity  there  towers  the  lofty,  craggy  pile  known  as  Ras 


80  THE   PEAK  OF   SINAI. 

Sasafeh,  the  northern  abutment  of  Sinai.  Its  grandeur  and 
precipitousness,  taken  in  connection  with  the  great  plain  at  its 
base,  caused  Robinson  to  suspect  in  a  moment  that  here  was 
the  scene  of  the  law-giving.  The  highest  peak  of  Sinai  can 
not  be  seen  from  this  plain ;  one  must  pass  round  the  moun- 
tain to  the  south  side  to  see  it ;  but  the  northern  side  is  so 
bold  and  steep  that  it  makes  an  even  more  striking  impression 
on  the  mind  than  the  more  shelving  southern  ascent.  The 
face  of  Ras  Sasafeh  rises  so  that  one  can  well  see  that  the 
command  was  an  intelligible  one,  that  the  mount  be  not 
touched ;  towering,  as  it  does,  like  a  wall  of  rock.  On  that 
plain,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  could  stand,  and  look 
up  to  the  majestic,  overhanging  cliff.  At  the  southern  base 
of  Sinai  is  another  tolerably  large  tract  of  ground,  known  as 
the  Plain  of  Sebaiyeh ;  but  it  is  far  more  broken  and  uneven 
than  the  great  camping-ground  on  the  north.  Since  the  time 
of  Robinson,  most  travelers  have  coincided  with  this  view, 
that  the  latter  was  the  place  where  the  people  assembled  when 
the  law  was  given,  though  there  are  some  who  insist  that 
they  were  on  the  more  uneven  ground  south  of  the  mountain, 
since  there  is  the  view  of  the  true  crest  of  Sinai.  The  moun- 
tain is  long,  rather  than  round,  and  its  physical  character  is 
this :  On  the  east  there  is  a  defile  running  northward  and 
southward,  separating  Sinai  from  the  lofty  mountain  known 
as  Ed  Deu'.  On  the  western  side  there  is  another  similar  ra- 
vine, separating  Sinai  from  the  still  loftier  peak  of  St.  Cathe- 
rine. In  the  former  of  these  defiles,  a  mile  from  the  great 
plain  at  the  north  base  of  the  mountain,  is  the  Greek  convent, 
built  in  the  sixth  century  by  the  Emperor  Justinian,  and  the 
only  hostelry  for  travelers  in  the  whole  peninsula.  It  has 
been  so  often  described  that  I  need  only  allude  to  it,  for  it 
bears  no  special  relation  to  my  subject.  It  has,  within  a  very 
few  years,  been  brought  into  new  prominence  as  the  scene  of 
Prof.  Tischendorf 's  discovery  of  a  very  ancient  manuscript  of 
the  New  Testament ;  and  I  shall  not  soon  forget  the  rare 
pleasure  I  enjoyed,  a  few  months  since,  in  hearing  from  his 


PLACE   OF   THE   ENCAMPMENT.  83 

own  lips  the  story  of  that  most  interesting  discovery, — the 
unfolding  of  hint  after  hint,  the  intense  anxiety,  and  the  hours 
of  joy  when  the  precious  document  came  to  light.*  In  the 
other  ravine,  that  along  the  western  base  of  the  mountain,  is 
a  deserted  convent,  that  of  El  Arbain,  or  the  Forty.  The 
ascent  is  made  from  the  convent,  the  way  leading  up  continu- 
ous flights  of  rude  stairs,  cut  along  in  the  solid  granite.  The 
top  of  the  mountain  is  long  and  tolerably  flat,  being  mostly  a 
small  rock-plateau,  running  northward  to  a  sharp  edge,  down 
which  you  can  look,  as  from  the  eaves  of  a  house,  directly 
upon  the  gi-eat  plain.  The  southern  portion  of  the  mountain 
rises  cone-like  into  the  air,  and  looks  down  upon  the  narrower 
and  more  broken  Plain  of  Sebaiyeh  at  the  southern  base  of 
Sinai.  On  this  high  peak  Moses  would  seem  to  have  dwelt 
during  those  long  forty  days  and  forty  nights  in  which  he  was 
communing  with  his  God ;  while  Joshua  appears  not  to  have 
gone  above  the  rock-plateau,  and  there  to  have  awaited  the 
return  of  Moses  from  the  loftier  hight.  The  place  has  for 
centuries  been  a  sacred  one,  and  the  broken  remnants  of 
churches  and  chapels,  and  a  mosque,  even,  testify  to  the  an- 
cient regard  of  Mohammedans  as  well  as  Christians  for  this 
sacred  spot. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  true  view  of  the  place  of 
the  encampment  must  be  gained  by  partial  concession  both 
of  those  who  hold  to  the  northern  and  those  who  hold  to  the 
southern  plain.  They  are  connected,  not  only  by  the  narrow 
ravine  east  of  Sinai,  which  beyond  the  convent  narrows  into 
a  mere  foot-path,  but  by  a  very  broad  line  of  valley  which 
passes  east  of  the  mountain  east  of  Sinai.  In  this  valley,  as 
well  as  in  the  two  plains,  there  was  an  excellent  opportunity 
for  encampment ;  and  I  can  not  forbear  thinking  that  the 
great  host  of  the  Israelites  filled  both  the  plains  and  this 
circuitous  Wady  Sebaiyeh,  as  well  as  that  portion  of  Wady 
Sheikh  which  connects  the  great  plain  Er  Rahah  with  Wady 
Sebaiyeh.  The  play  of  lightnings  was  doubtless  visible  all 
over  the  mountain ;    the  elders  and  the  chief  priests  were 

*  On  the  three  following  pages,  specimens  in  exact  fac-simile  are  given  of  thia 
ancient  manuscript. 


AUJTH  N  en>rr€A/ 
NN[Toyn>^vrrocM«T 

Ac  l<A.e  J  CATGCN  TH 

n  oAei  ecu  coY€N 

AYNAMIN 
GXH  TAreN  AeAYTIf*^ 
ecucnfocRHeA 

NIAHKAIenAfA^ 
TAC  X I  p  ACAYTOTH 

y  Aor  H  ce  n  Ayroy^ 

KAiereNeroeN 

TcueyAori  n  att^ 

AYToyCAiecTH 
An  AY'HJJ  N  KA I  AY_ 
TOin  pOCKYNMCK 

TecAyTo  N  Yri  ec 
Tfe^KNelciepoY 

CAAH  MM  CTAXA 
fACMCrAAHCKA) 
HCANAIAnAN'P^ 

e  N  Tu:>  I  e  f  CD  ey/sO 
royNTecTONON 

lY^rreAhN 

Tcataaykan'^ 


^ofe. — The  above  is  Luke  xxiv.  49-53,  in  exact  fac-siniile  from  the  Sinai  manu* 
Bcript. 


TCOYA^TI  M  O  N  ON 
AAA6NTXOYANTI 
KAITCpAi  MATIKN 
Ton  N  A€  CTI  NTO 
M  Ap  TY  P  OTN  OTIT*> 
riNAeCTINHA^H 

eeiAOTioiTpei^:!! 

cmoiTHLApTTP^V 
TecTo  TT  N  ak:  A|  Toy 
acupkattoaiha 

KAioitP^'C^J^T** 

TY  f  I  ^NTQyjOX^^^ 

2 

HCeNCHMeiON9<^ 

ro  H  o  YTO  c  e  CTI  N 
AAHococonro^*"  ^ 

iTHCOelCTONK^'^M- 
epxoMeNOC 

ICOYNTNOYCOTI 

CeAPKXIApnA^elN 
AYTOH  kX  I  X MA i^i^^'f 

^^CYretnAAi  N^IT* 

Of  OCMONOCKrTo** 

Note. — No.  1,  is  John  v.  6-9.     No.  2,  is  John  vi.  14,  15. 


8 

0  oycKKi  R  pexi  en  i^v«t^ 

Ip  5 

Toi  c^i5f^ef  f  oyNT€c 


€A0i»HTr«O 


KXI  XM  AprCDXOj 

7 

o-xnImh  JO  Yo  Ae2^  I  e 

8 
9 

ToxH  ceyceRenvG 

MYCTHflONOCe 

no NTec 6 1  el ecv^^  ^ 

15  -V* 


M)te  No.  3,  is  a  correction  in  Matt.  v.  45.  No.  4,  is  a  correction  in  Matt.  x.  39. 
No.  5,  is  a  correction  in  2  Cor.  x.  12.  No.  6,  is  a  correction  in  Matt.  ix.  10.  No. 
7,  is  a  correction  in  Matt.  iii.  13,  14.  No.  8,  is  a  correction  in  Luke  xxiv.  51. 
No.  9,  is  a  correction  in  Matt,  xxiii.  35.  No.  10,  is  a  caligrapliic  flourish.  No. 
11,  is  a  correction  in  Rev.  xi.  1.  No.  12,  is  a  correction  in  Isaiali  viii.  28.  No. 
13,  is  a  correction  in  1  Tim.  iii.  16.  No.  14,  is  a  correction  in  Matt.  xix.  3. 
No.  15,  is  a  sentence  by  a  certain  monk  who  had  been  employed  on  the  manu- 
script, or  had  the  use  of  it,  nearly?  aa  late  as  the  12th  century. 


FRAGMENT  OF  EGYPTIAN  MANUSCRIPT. 
Similar  in  character  to  those  found  on  the  written  rocks  in  the  Sinaitic  desert. 


88  MOSES'  FOOT-PATH   TO   THE   TOP. 

probably  in  the  plain  south  of  the  mountain,  and  an  immense 
multitude  doubtless  stood  on  the  northern  plain,  and  looked 
up  to  the  top  of  the  massive  wall  which  is  called  Ras  Sasafeh. 

Most  travelers  have  inferred,  from  the  fact  that  the  ascent 
is  on  the  eastern  side,  that  there  was  the  path  by  which  Moses 
went  up  ;  but  my  friend,  Rev.  F.  W.  Holland  of  London,  who 
has  recently  passed  several  weeks  in  that  neighborhood,  as- 
sures me  the  most  accessible  way  is  one  leading  from  the 
northern  extremity  of  the  western  defile,  and  that  there  is  lit- 
tle doubt  that  Moses  went  up  and  down  that  way.  If  that  is 
the  case,  the  old  tradition  which  makes  the  casting  of  the 
golden  calf  at  that  point  would  seem  to  rest  upon  a  certain 
basis  of  truth  ;  although,  as  a  general  rule,  these  traditions — 
such  for  instance  as  that  the  convent  occupies  the  place  where 
Moses  discovered  the  burning  bush,  and  that  the  rock  can  stUl 
be  seen  at  the  foot  of  Sinai  which  was  smitten  by  Moses,  and 
from  which  water  gushed — are  idle  fables,  invented  by  the 
Greek  monks  for  the  easy  credidity  of  the  Arabs.  Still,  there 
are  one  or  two  interesting  circumstances  connected  even  with 
these  traditions :  one  is,  that  the  mountain  itself  bears  the 
name,  not  of  Sinai,  but  of  Jebel  Musa,  the  Mount  of  Moses, 
while  the  ravine  east  of  it  is  called,  even  to-day,  by  the  Arab 
name  of  Moses'  father-in-law. 

Around  this  mountain  lay  the  tract  known  as  the  Wilder- 
ness of  Sinai.  It  is  one  thousand  feet  higher  than  the  level 
of  Wady  Feiran ;  the  air  is  dry,  clear,  and  bracing.  I  need 
not  say  that  this  is  one  of  the  healthiest  districts  in  the  world ; 
the  winds  which  sweep  across  these  rocks  are  laden  with  no 
impurities,  and  bring  only  vigor.  There  are  a  few  springs  of 
water,  and  these  are  sweet  and  refreshing,  for  they  issue  from 
granite,  not  from  limestone.  There  are  small  bits  of  land  moist 
enough  to  reward  tillage ;  and  all  travelers  are  enthusiastic 
about  the  trees  and  grass  and  herbs  grown  in  the  garden  of  the 
Greek  convent.  In  the  western  ravine  there  are  the  traces  of  old 
gardens  not  quite  given  up  to  utter  neglect ;  the  monks  go 
thither  every  year  and  take  a  little  care  of  them,  gathering  figs 


90  THUNDER-STORM   ON  SINAI. 

and  dates  and  almonds,  and  a  few  other  tropical  productions,  to 
lay  in  store,  or  to  send  to  Cairo.  On  the  mountains  there 
grow  a  few  aromatic  shrubs,  and  in  the  wadies  there  are  scanty 
furze-bushes,  giving  a  meagre  support  to  the  camels  and  the 
goats  of  the  Arabs,  and  once  sustaining  the  herds  of  the  Is- 
raelites. The  Wilderness  of  Sinai  comprised  a  large  part  of 
Wady  Sheikh,  the  plain  Er  Rahah,  the  plain  of  Sebaiyeh,  and 
Wady  Sebaiyeh.  It  was  the  Israelites'  home  for  a  j^ear ;  and 
here  not  alone  was  the  Decalogue  given,  but  the  whole  cere- 
monial law  was  perfected,  and  propounded  to  the  people.  As 
the  Bible  expressly  says  that  the  Decalogue  was  given  duiing  a 
thunder-storm,  while  the  people  were  filled  with  fear,  it  may 
be  remarked  incidentally,  that  one,  at  least,  of  the  travelers 
who  have  given  us  the  record  of  their  wanderings  has  des- 
cribed a  thunder-storm  at  Sinai.  The  play  of  lightning  and 
the  echoes  of  the  thunder  he  asserts  to  have  been  extraordin- 
arily grand  and  impressive.  The  ordinary  silence  of  the  des- 
ert is  so  appalling  that  when  it  is  broken  in  this  way  the  roll 
of  thunder  is  doubly  loud,  and  the  mountains  themselves 
seem  to  quake.  A  person  sitting  on  the  summit  of  Ras  Sasa- 
feh,  and  speaking  in  ordinary  tones,  can  be  understood  at  the 
base,  for  there  is  not  the  sound  of  a  bird  or  an  insect  or  a 
brook  to  mingle  with  his  voice.  The  desert  is  inhabited  by 
absolute,  unbroken  silence.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  Mo- 
ses, learned  as  he  was  in  the  arts  of  the  Egyptians,  was  mas- 
ter of  no  magic  which  would  enable  him  to  create  a  mimic 
thunder-storm  on  Sinai ;  and  it  is  a  paltry  way  of  dealing  with 
the  text  to  degrade  that  great  convulsion  of  the  elements  in 
wliich  the  law  was  given,  into  the  legerdemain  of  a  show- 
man. Whatever  more  there  was,  there  was  a  storm  of  thunder 
and  lightning,  not  inferred  from  hints  in  the  Bible,  but  directly 
and  exphcitly  asserted. 

Among  the  chapels  on  Sinai  there  is  one  bearing  the  name 
of  Elijah ;  and  near  it  is  a  small  aperture  m  the  rock,  which 
is  asserted  to  have  served  the  prophet  as  a  lodging-place.  In 
the  absence  of  a  spot  more  fit,  this  is  thought,  even  by  the 


VIEW   FROM   SINAI.  91 

careful  Ritter,  to  be  authentic.  The  pilgrimage  of  Elijah  to 
Horeb  is  the  only  instance  recorded  in  the  Bible  of  ajiy  one 
of  the  Israehtes  going  down  from  Palestine  to  view  the  scene 
where  the  law  was  given.  How  different  fi-om  the  pilgrim 
spirit  of  the  present  and  the  past  few  centuries !  It  was  an 
easy  thing  for  the  Jews  to  go  to  Horeb,  but  its  ancient  fame 
appears  to  have  inspu-ed  no  desire  to  see  it.  It  throws  new 
light,  not  more  on  the  spirituaHty  of  Elijah  than  upon  the 
worldliness  of  the  nation  in  whose  mind  he  tried  to  keep  di- 
vine truth  a  living  thing.  And  here  was  the  place,  so  far  as 
the  evidence  in  our  possession  enables  us  to  go,  where  Elijah 
was,  after  receiving  the  command  to  "go  forth  and  stand  upon 
the  mount  before  the  Lord.  And,  behold,  the  Lord  passed 
by,  and  a  great  and  strong  wind  rent  the  mountains,  and 
brake  fn  pieces  the  rocks  before  the  Lord ;  but  the  Lord  was 
not  in  the  wind :  and  after  the  wind  an  earthquake ;  but 
the  Lord  was  not  in  the  earthquake :  and  after  the  earth- 
quake a  fii'e ;  but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  fire :  and  after 
the  fire  a  still,  small  voice.  And  it  was  so,  when  Elijah 
heard  it,  that  he  wrapped  his  face  in  his  mantle,  and  went 
out  and  stood  in  the  entermg  in  of  the  cave ;  and,  behold, 
there  came  a  voice  unto  liim,  and  said.  What  doest  thou  here, 
Elijah?" 

"  The  view  from  the  siunmit  can  not  compare,"  says  Ritter, 
"  even  under  the  clearest  sky,  with  that  fi-om  St.  Catherine, 
and  hence  travelers  who  have  interested  themselves  in  mak- 
ing a  topographical  survey  of  the  whole  peninsula  have  made 
little  account  of  it.  But  the  very  fact  that  Sinai  is  so  over- 
topped by  loftier  peaks  gives  the  view  from  its  summit  its  own 
peculiar  charms.  Shut  in,  as  the  observer  is,  he  can  better 
study  the  strange  wildness  and  sublimity  of  this  Httle  cluster 
of  naked  moimtains,  and  get  a  better  conception  of  the  strange 
elemental  forces  which  produce  so  haggard  a  scene,  than  if 
upon  a  loftier  summit  and  with  a  wider  view.  Sir  Francis 
Henniker  has  very  truly  and  finely  said  that  it  seemed  to  him, 
as  he  surveyed  the  wild  picture  before  him,  as  if  it  had  once 


92  VIEW   FROM   SINAI. 

been  an  ocean  of  boiling  lava,  cooled  and  fixed  in  its  present 
form  by  a  single  mandate  of  the  Most  High. 

"  Yet,  though  tlie  view  from  Sinai  toward  the  east,  south, 
and  west  is  comparatively  limited,  in  consequence  of  the 
greater  hight  of  the  outlying  peaks,  the  view  is  by  no  means 
inconsiderable,  nor  to  be  dismissed  with  a  hasty  passing  word. 
Both  the  arms  of  the  Red  Sea  can  be  seen,  although  only  in 
glimpses.  '  Close  before  me,'  says  Wellsted,  '  rose  St.  Cathe- 
rine, with  its  bare,  wedge-shaped  peak,  wearing  a  snow-cap 
cone  yet  upon  its  head.  For  many  years,  in  the  course  of 
repeated  voyages  made  in  all  the  waters  adjacent  to  this '  re- 
gion, I  had  been  accustomed  to  look  at  all  these  mountain 
systems  from  every  point  of  view ;  but  the  loftiness  of  the 
Sinai  group  gave  it  at  once  a  special  character.  Rising  in  sharp, 
isolated  wedges,  enormous  masses  of  rock  have  detached  them- 
selves from  time  to  time,  and  have  fallen,  giving  rise  to  deep 
clefts,  gorges,  and  ravines,  which  break  through  the  whole 
district,  and  give  it  the  wildest  aspect.  The  highest  summits 
are  covered  with  snow  in  winter,  which,  melting  in  springy  fills 
the  channels  of  countless  brooks,  and  sweeps  with  mad  and 
devastating  violence  through  all  the  mountain-passes,  carry- 
ing away  whatever  little  soil  may  have  accumulated.  The 
lofty  wedge-shajje  brings  the  peaks  of  the  Sinai  group  in  sharp 
contrast  with  those  of  the  other  long,  low  ridges  of  the  penin- 
sula. No  resting-places  for  man,  no  villages,  no  castles,  give 
animation  to  the  scene,  as  in  European  mountain  regions ;  no 
lake,  no  clear  river,  no  waterfall,  no  forest  breaks  the  monot- 
ony of  solitude.  Everywhere  there  is  seen  only  the  wide, 
empty  wilderness, — ^gray,  dark-brown,  black, — in  the  extreme 
distance  the  bright  sea  of  sand.  There  is  nothing  to  give  in- 
terest to  the  scene  except  the  mighty  recollection  of  the  past : 
this  throws  over  it  all  a  dark  and  deep  and  mysterious  charm.' " 

In  the  valleys  and  on  the  plains  which  encompass  Sinai  the 
Israelites  passed  nearly  a  year.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  the 
law  being  perfected,  the  people,  being  hardened  by  their  tent 
life  and  open-air  duties,  were  supposed  to  be  ready  to  move 


THE   GREAT   AND   TERRIBLE   WILDERNESS.  93 

on  to  the  promised  land  without  delay.  Up  to  this  point  we 
have  followed  them  withoilt  great  difficulty :  after  this  point 
their  course  is  much  more  uncertain,  partly  in  consequence  of 
the  obscurity  of  the  language  of  Scripture,  and  partly  fi-om 
the  want  of  a  thorough  examination  of  the  whole  country.  It 
is  true,  every  route  has  been  traversed,  but  no  traveler  has 
explored  all,  compared  them  with  themselves  and  with  the 
biblical  account,  and  given  us  the  result  of  liis  investigations. 
Still,  there  is  little  need  of  this.  The  general  character  of 
the  country  is  much  the  same,  whichever  way  the  Israelites 
chose  in  their  journey  northward.  It  was  a  great  and  terri- 
ble wilderness,  relieved  with  few  springs  and  scanty  vegeta- 
tion, and  filled  with  narrow  passes  and  desolate  plains.  It  is 
almost  a  profitless  use  of  time  to  endeavor  to  decipher  the 
geography  of  the  thirty-third  chapter  of  Numbers.  Those 
encampments  were  of  so  Httle  account  in  leaving  any  im- 
press oil  the  Hebrew  character,  they  were  in  every  sense  so 
temporary,  that  the  scholarship  which  is  worthily  directed  to 
the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis  is  here  squandered  on  an  unre- 
munerative  theme.  Yet  the  record  of  the  earlier  chapters  of 
Numbers  gives  us  all  that  we  really  need,  and  tells  its  story 
with  even  greater  explicitness  than  does  the  narrative  of  Exo- 
dus relative  to  the  approach  to  Sinai.  There  is  little  doubt 
that  the  Israelites  took  what  seemed  the  most  direct  course  to 
the  land  which  they  sought,  passing,  as  it  would  seem,  up  to 
the  great  elevated  plateau  known  as  the  Tih  ;  and  when  draw- 
ing near  to  the  confines  of  Palestine,  delegating  forty  of  their 
number  to  go  up  and  explore  the  land.  The  main  body, 
meanwhile,  passed  down  into  the  long  trough  of  the  Arabah, 
between  the  limestone  wall  of  the  Tih  on  the  west  and  the 
mountains  of  Seir,  or  Edom,  on  the  east,  to  Kadesh,  a  district 
lying,  it  would  seem,  in  the  north-western  part  of  this  sunken 
valley.  No  trace  of  the  city  of  Kadesh  appears  to  be  remain- 
ing ;  but  Kadesh  seems  to  have  been  a  district  as  well  as  a 
city  :  and  of  all  the  locations  which  have  been  assigned  to  it, 
that  given  by  Robinson  appears  to  be  the  one  best  authenti- 


94  AN   UNIvNOWN   REGION. 

cated.  The  Desert  of  Paran,  often  alluded  to  in  the  Bible,  is, 
taken  in  a  general  sense,  the  biolid  tract  known  as  the  Till 
Plateau ;  while  that  of  Zin  seems  to  be  th.e  sterile  valley  of 
the  Arabah.  The  five  deserts  of  the  vrhole  peninsula  are 
these :  Shur,  or  Ethani,  near  the  Isthmus  of  Suez ;  Sin,  the 
western  plain,  embracing  not  only  the  tract  alluded  to  as  El 
Murkah,  crossed  by  the  Israelites  after  leaving  Elim  and  the 
encampment  by  the  sea,  but  extending  down  nearly  to  the 
southern  extremity  of  the  peninsula,  and  comprising  the  plain 
known  at  the  present  time  as  El  Kaa  ;  Sinai,  the  plains  around 
the  mountain  of  the  law-giving ;  Paran,  the  Tih  Plateau ;  and 
Zin,  the  valley  of  the  Arabah.  Kadesh  lay  on  the  confines 
and  between  both  the  latter ;  hence  it  is  sometimes  reckoned  as 
belonging  to  the  one,  and  sometimes  to  the  other.  The  reader 
of  the  Bible  history  need  not  be  reminded  of  the  hasty  and 
desperate  plunge  which  the  Israelites  made  to  seize  a  moun- 
tain of  the  Amalekites,  as  it  is  called  in  the  narrative,  nor  of 
the  signal  defeat  which  they  encountered.  The  region  is  so 
little  knowm  at  present,  that  I  dare  not  attempt  to  pronounce 
upon  the  hypothesis  that  that  mountain  was  a  second  small 
plateau,  superimposed  upon  the  north-eastern  portion  of  the 
great  Tih  plain.  Enough  that  it  appears  tenable.  At  just 
what  time  the  conflict  with  the  Idng  of  Arad,  one  of  the 
walled  cities  in  the  south  of  Palestine,  took  place,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  say ;  but  this  is  plain :  the  country  which  they  sought 
to  take  was  too  strong  for  them.  Caleb  and  Joshua  were  the 
only  ones  of  the  spies  who  gave  a  favorable  account  of  the 
comparative  ease  of  capturing  the  land ;  and  in  both  assaults 
the  Israelites  were-  evidently  completely  routed.  AVe  see  them 
in  both  instances,  pushed  back  down  the  Arabah  Valley. 

Very  near  them  rose  the  lofty  range  of  Edom, — the  moun- 
tains of  Seir.  A  valley  known  as  Wady  Ghaweir  runs  east- 
ward from  the  Arabah,  cleaving  the  range,  and  allowing,  fiee 
passage  across  the  country  once  held  by  the  Edomites.  This 
was  in  the  possession  of  the  descendants  of  Esau  ;  but  if  per- 
mission were  granted  to  the  Israehtes  to  pass  through,  they 


SCENE  OF  Aaron's  bueial.  95 

might  easily  march  northward,  east  of  the  Dead  Sea,  and 
enter  Palestine  by  another  approach.  The  south  was,  as  they 
saw,  thoroughly  guarded.  The  "  Canaanites  and  Amalekites 
dwelt  in  the  valley,"  meaning  the  northern  part  of  the  Arabah 
and  along  the  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea ;  while  the  Amorites 
held  the  high  land  of  the  south  of  Palestine.  They  had  proved 
themselves  more  than  a  match  for  the  Israelites,  and  now  a 
new  way  must  be  sought ;  but  the  Edomites  were  unwilling 
that  their  kinsmen  should  pass  through  their  territory.  Then 
follows  that  long  period  of  distressing  waiting, — those  years 
while  the  old  generation  was  dying  and  being  buried,  those 
tliirty-eiglit  years  of  aimless  wandering,  and  of  more  purpose- 
less encampments.  To  all  appearance,  they  did  not  travel 
much  out  of  the  Arabah  Valley,  one  of  the  most  barren,  arid, 
and  frightful  portions  of  the  whole  desert.  Of  the  many 
places  mentioned  in  connection  with  their  wanderings,  Mt.  Hor 
and  Ezion-geber  stand  out  with  perfect  distinctness.  When- 
ever these  names  are  mentioned  we  know  where  we  are.  Mt. 
Hor,  the  place  of  Aaron's  burial,  his  place  of  sepulture  being 
marked  at  the  present  day  by  a  Mahometan  wely^  or  tomb, 
overhangs  the  eastern  edge  of  the  Arabah,  not  far  from  its 
northern  extremity,  while  Ezion-geber  lay  at  the  northern  end 
of  the  Gulf  of  Akabah.  We  see  the  Israelites  at  this  place ; 
we  see  them  farther  north  again,  at  the  foot  of  Hor,  and  yet 
again  at  Kadesh ;  in  despau',  doubtless,  disgusted  with  their 
provisions,  famished  for  want  of  water,  and  dying  by  thous- 
ands. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  journey  of  the 
spies  northward.  Their  course  is  perfectly  plain.  They 
passed  out  of  the  Desert  of  Zin  by  the  narrow  pass  of  Sufa, 
or  Zephath,  not  far  from  the  southern  extremity  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  thence  to  Hebron,  and  so  up  the  whole  line  of  water-shed 
along  which  Abraham  and  Jacob  and  Jacob's  sons  had  passed, 
till  they  reached  Rehob,  not  far  from  Dan,  a  short  distance 
west  of  Lake  Huleh.  Just  north  of  Rehob  is  the  opening  of 
the  long  valley  between  the  Lebanon  and  the  Anti-Lebanon 


«■■ 


llll 


I  ri,    ; 


,l'!:fl!  ,ji!lfiBft*,.t\'VsfSk. 


THE  WONDERFUL  GRAPES   OF  PALESTINE.  97 

Mountains,  and  in  that  valley  lay  the  ancient  city  of  Hamath. 
We  read,  therefore,  in  the  account  of  the  spies'  course,  that 
"  they  searched  the  land  from  the  wilderness  of  Zin  unto  Re- 
hob,  as  men  come  to  Hamath."  Some  have  imagined  that 
another  Rehob  is  meant,  lying  farther  north,  and  nearer  the 
city  of  Hamath,  which  was  in  the  narrowest  part  of  the  Coele- 
Syrian  Valley,  and  where,  near  Antioch,  the  Orontes  breaks 
through  a  wild  mountain  gorge ;  but  this  seems  to  me  a  false 
view.  The  spies  were  absent  forty  days,  and,  with  the  going 
and  returning,  the  time  would  be  entirely  consumed  in  trav- 
ersing the  district  between  Dan  and  Beersheba,  or,  which  is 
.almost  identical,  between  Rehob,  close  by  Dan,  and  the  Des- 
ert of  Zin. .  Eshcol,  whose  grapes  have  received  undying  ce- 
lebrity from  their  visit,  is  a  valley  imder  the  very  shadow  of 
the  city  of  Hebron ;  and  the  grapes  of  that  spot,  though 'per- 
haps not  equaling  those  which  the  virgin  soil  once  produced 
-  there,  are  still  remarkable  both  for  size  and  flavor.  We  get, 
in  the  report  of  the  spies,  one  glimpse  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Hebron,  giants  in  stature  compared  with  the  diminutive  He- 
brews. The  Israelites  were  at  Kadesh  when  the  spies  re- 
turned. The  report  was  brief,  and,  notwithstanding  the  good 
things  which  it  confirmed  to  exist  in  Palestine,  was  not  a  little 
discouraging.  They  reported  to  Moses  (Num.  xiv.  27-30), 
"  We  came  unto  the  land  wliither  thou  sentest  us,  and  surely 
it  floweth  with  milk  and  honey ;  and  this  [the  grapes]  is  the 
fruit  of  it.  Nevertheless,  the  people  be  strong  that  dwell  in 
that  land,  ^nd  the  cities  are  walled,  and  very  great ;  and,  more- 
over, we  saw  the  children  of  Anak  [the  giants]  there.  The 
Amalekites  dwell  in  that  land  of  the  south ;  and  the  Hittites 
and  the  Jebusites  and  the  Amorites  dwell  in  the  mountains ; 
and  the  Canaanites  dwell  by  the  sea  and  by  the  coast  of  Jor- 
dan." Of  some  of  these  tribes  we  have  already  caught 
glimpses.  A  portion  of  the  Amalekites  we  saw  in  Wady  Fei- 
ran,  stopping  the  way  of  the  Israehtes  as  they  advanced  to 
Sinai, — a  widely-scattered  tribe,  wandering  over  the  Tih  Plat- 
eau, the  south  country,  and  the  Arabah  Valley ;  the  Jebusites 


98  DEAN  Stanley's  theory. 

have  been  referred  to  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  rock  which  be- 
came the  subsequent  Jerusalem ;  the  Hittites  we  saw  dwelUng 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Hebron,  and  selhng  to  Abraham  the 
gi*ave  of  Machpolah ; '  while  the  Amorites  have  been  referred 
to  as  inhabiting  the  hill  country  in  the  southern  pai-t  of  Pales- 
tine. It  is  manifest,  at  a  glance,  that  they  all  possessed  a 
higher  civilization  than  the  wandering  Hebrews.  Their  walled 
cities,  and  their  culture  of  the  gi'ape,  indicate  that  they  were 
far  in  advance  of  the  race  Avhich  had  not  risen  from  the  estate 
of  slaves  to  the  strength  and  culture  which  were  only  to  ac- 
crue with  the  lapse  of  centuries. 

From  the  results  of  this  preliminary  survey  of  Palestine,  let 
us  come  back  to  the  wanderings  of  the  Israelites.  •  It  should 
not  be  supposed  that  they  were  on  the  move  from  day  to  day ; 
their  course  was  in  all  probability  not  unlike  that  of  the  Arabs 
of  the  present  time.  They  must  advance  in  obedience  to  the 
necessities  of  pasturage  for  their  flocks,  and  of  water  for  them- 
selves. He  who  hears  even  the  young  ravens  which  cry,  would 
move  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire,  so  as  in  ordinary  cases  to 
minister  to  these  natural  wants.  Could  they  have  gone  to 
that  romantic  rock  city  of  Petra,  as  Stanley  fancies  they  did, 
though  I  think  without  reason,  they  would  have  found  shade 
and  water  and  pasturage,  and  their  thirty-eight  years  in  and 
near  Kadesh  would  not  have  been  intolerable.  It  seems  to  be 
one  of  the  few  weak  points  in  Stanley's  admirable  work, — 
this  fanciful  identification  of  Kadesh,  the  place  where  Miriam 
died,  and  where  the  scarcity  of  water  is  expressly  ^^luded  to, 
with  the  profusely-watered  city  of  Petra.  And  here  I  cail  not 
refrain  from  paying  a  passing  tribute  to  the  rare  thoroughness 
as  well  as  to  the  peculiar  beauty  of  Stanley's  "  Sinai  and 
Palestine."  That  tenacious  notion  that  a  picturesque,  fasci- 
nating, brilliant  work  must  necessarily  be  superficial  and  unre- 
liable, has  caused  some  to  entertain  the  conviction  that  because 
Stanley  has  the  former  qualities  in  an  eminent  degree,  he 
must  be  destitute  of  the  sterling  qualities  which  characterize 
the  heavier  Robinson.     It  is  not  so.     His  work  is  in  every  re- 


NEAR  THE  BORDERS  OF  MOAB.  99 

spect  a  classic.  Chateaubriand  and  Lamartine  wrote  books  on 
Palestine,  whose  peculiar,  indeed  whose  only  value  lay  in  their 
style  ;  but  Stanley,  while  always  ornate,  rich,  picturesque,  and 
yet  chaste,  betrays  the  ripest  scholarship  and  a  thoroughly- 
trained  judgment.  Nor  is  it  to  be  said  that  there  are  no 
grounds  for  identifying  Kadesh  with  Petra ;  there  are  some 
which  are  entitled  to  consideration,  although  the  burden  of 
evidence  is  against  them. 

Not  being  allowed  to  pass  through  the  rocky  hights  of  Edom, 
we  see  the  Israelites,  at  the  end  of  forty  years,  move  down  to 
the  Gulf  of  Akabah  once  more,  round  the  lower  extremity  of 
the  mountains  of  Seir,  and  pass  up  along  their  eastern  base. 
The  Edomites,  descendants  of  Esau,  seem  to  have  cherished 
no  ill-will  toward  their  distant  kinsmen,  notwithstanding  then- 
former  refusal,  and  bring  out  provisions  to  them  as  they  pass 
by.  It  is  a  quick  march.  The  narrative  makes  no  halt  till  it 
takes  them  to  the  borders  of  Moab.  Only  two  incidents  are 
brought  into  distinct  notice :  the  one  occurring  apparently  at 
the  outset,  the  latter  while  the  Israelites  were  well  on  their 
way.  The  first  of  these  was  the  death  of  Aaron,  on  Mt.  Hor  ; 
the  second  was  the  fatal  bitmg  of  the  serpents.  The  discov- 
ery, by  Burckhardt,  of  venomous  reptiles  near  the  northern 
portion  of  the  Gulf  of  Akabah,  seems  not  only  to  corroborate 
the  striking  veracity  of  the  narrative,  but  to  fix  the  place 
where  this  evil  befell  the  wandering  Israelites. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  TRANS-JORDANIC  DISTRICT. 


A  New  Field — Recapitulation — The  Ancient  Tribes — The  Moabites  and  the 
Ammonites — Moab  and  its  Divisions — A  Country  Little  Explored — Who 
have  gone  through  it — Hindrances  made  by  the  Savage  Bedouins — Victory 
over  "  Sihon,  King  of  Amorites  " — Rampage  Northward  into  Og's  Region — 
Porter's  Researches — The  Houses  of  Bashan — Argob  and  its  Threescore 
Cities — Territory  Given  to  Reuben — To  Gad — To  Half-Manasseh — Hermon 
and  its  Various  Names — The  Midianites — Balaam  and  the  Scene  of  His 
Vision — The  Theoretical  Limits  of  Palestine — Prominent  Objects  in  the 
Landscape — Scene  of  Moses'  Death — His  Allotment  of  the  "  Promised  Land." 

E  have  now  advanced  to  a  new  field,  a  kind  of  inter- 
mediate link  between  the  Wilderness  and  the  Land 
of  Promise.  That  district,  east  of  the  Dead  Sea 
and  the  Jordan,  has  already  come  into  view  once  or  twice. 
We  have  seen  the  descent  of  Chedorlaomer  and  the  kings  of 
the  East  upon  it,  their  onslaught  upon  the  ancient  tribe  of 
Emim,  east  of  the  Dead  Sea,  and  the  Zamzummim,  or  Zuzim, 
farther  north,  east  of  the  lower  Jordan ;  we  have  seen  Jacob 
crossing  the  mountains  of  Gilead,  erecting  his  memorial  pile 
at  Mahanaim,  on  the  Jabbok,  and  passing  thence  down  the  de- 
file to  the  Jordan ;  but  further  than  this  it  has  not  come  into 
any  prominence.  Nor  does  it  do  so  in  the  subsequent  Bible 
story ;  for  although  the  territories  of  Ammon  and  Moab,  of 
Reuben,  Gad,  and  Half-Manasseh,  have  some  relation  to  the 
history  of  Israel,  yet  it  is  only  slight  and  incidental.  At  the 
time  when  the  Hebrews  entered  that  district,  the  land  was  in 
a  state  of  convulsion,  and  the  circumstances  of  "the  king  of 
Moab  were  desperate.  Here,  as  in  all  our  previous  studies, 
history  is  the  best  companion  of  geography ;  indeed,  the  two 


AN  UNEXPLORED  COUNTRY.  101 

are  inseparable  if  we  would  view  the  Holy  Land  as  a  living 
and  not  a  dead  thing.     Let  us  glance,  then,  at  the  country  in 
the  state  in  wliich  the  IsraeUtes  found  it.     The  ancient  tribes 
of  the  Rephaim,  the  Emim,  and  Zuzuu,  had  faded  out,  and  the 
descendants  of  Lot  had  taken  possession  of  the  whole  of  the 
land.     The  children  of  one  of  Lot's  daughters  held  the  south- 
ern region,  the  district  of  Moab ;  those  of  the  other  daughter 
had  gone  farther  north,  and  gave  their  own  name  of  Amnion 
to  the  land.     Their  race  was  a  prolific  one ;  and,  at  the  tune 
of  the  Israelitish  invasion,  about  five  hundred  years  subse^ 
quent  to  the  time  when  Abraham  and  Lot  parted  upon  Bethel, 
we  find  the  Moabites  and  Ammonites  great  nations.     Their 
character  was  different.     Moab  was  peaceful  and  inoffensive ; 
Amnion,  warlike  and  turbulent.      The  Moabites  were  quiet 
herdsmen,  possessing  admirable   grazmg   lands,   and   raising 
great  flocks  and  herds ;  the  Ammonites  were  the  Bedouins  of 
the  day,  a  nomadic,  fierce,  thriftless  race.      It  is,  therefore, 
easy  to  make  out  fron>  the  biblical  account  the  boundaries  of 
Moab  ;  but  Aiiimon  shades  away  northward  into  the  hills,  and 
eastward  into  the  desert,  m  a  manner  which  defies  our  at- 
tempt to  establish  its  limits.     ]\Ioab  consisted  of  three  divis- 
ions, each  bearing  a  distinctive  name,  and  each  perfectly  well 
to  be  made  out  at  the  present  day.     The  tract  lying  south  of 
the  Wady  Mojeb,  or  Arnon,  a  stream  flowing  into  the  Dead 
Sea,  just  north  of  the  well-known  peninsula,  is  alluded  to  in 
Scripture  as  the  "field  of  Moab;"    the  tract  lymg  between 
the  Arnon  and  the  Jabbok  is  called  the  "land  of  Moab;" 
while  the  low  tract  close  by  the  Jordan  and  opj)osite  Jericho 
bears  the  name  of  the  "plains  of  Moab."     The  finest  tract 
for  grazing  purposes  was  and  still  is  the  second  one  mentioned, 
the  land  of  Moab,  a  fine  upland,  a  broken  plateau,  bounded 
on  the  west  by  that  great  mountain-wall  which  follows  the 
whole  course  of  the  Jordan,  and  broken  here  and  there  by 
hights  which  rise  conspicuously  above  the  elevated  plains.     It 
is  a  country  but  little  known  even  at  the  present  day  ;  Burck- 
hardt,  Seetzen,  Buckingham,  Irby  and  Mangles,  Tristram,  and 


102  WHO  HAVE   GONE  THEOUGH  IT. 

a  few  other  bold  and  enterprising  travelers  only,  having  trav- 
ersed it,  and  brought  us  what  little  we  know  of  it :  while  the 
country  farther  north,  the  territory  of  Ammon,  has  been 
crossed  by  a  fearless  few, — Porter,  Wetzstein,  and  Graham, — 
in  addition  to  those  who  have  brought  us  what  we  know  of 
Mcab.  Many  of  the  greatest  explorers,  including  such  men 
as  Robinson  and  Stanley,  have  scarcely  set  foot  upon  the  land 
east  of  the  Jordan.  The  wild  character  of  the  Bedouins  there, 
taken  in  connection  with  the  slight  relation  of  that  district  to 
the  history  of  the  Jews,  has  shut  it  off;  and  out  of  the  hun- 
dreds of  travelers  who  go  annually  to  Jerusalem,  Hebron, 
Nazareth,  and  Jericho,  scarcely  one  passes  the  Jordan  and 
treads  the  land  of  Moab. 

At  the  time  of  the  Israelitish  invasion,  the  fierce  tribe  of 
the  Amorites  had  sent  a  portion  of  their  large  numbers  away 
from  the  hill-country  north  of  Hebron  across  the  Jordan,  to 
subdue  the  rich  pasture-lands  there.  Their  strength  had  made 
them  more  than  a  match  for  the  peacefjid  and  inoffensive  Mo- 
abites ;  and  they  had  easily  wrested  from  the  latter  their  best 
land,  and  driven  them  into  the  "field  of  Moab,"  the  tract  south 
of  the  Arnon.  The  Israelites  did  not  pass  through  this  terri- 
tory; but,  having  crossed  the  Zared  and  then  the  Arnon,  they 
went  farther  toward  the  sun-rising,  and  entered  the  compara- 
tively bare  and  desolate  country  east  of  the  "  land  of  Moab." 
The  king  of  the  Amorites,  Sihon  (his  name  is  preserved),  had 
estabhshed  his  capital  at  Heshbon,  a  place  which  bears  the  same 
name  even  to-day  (Hesban),  and  whose  ruins,  though  not  im- 
portant, display  the  same  cisterns  which  made  the  fish-pools 
of  Heshbon  noted  even  in  Solomon's  time.  The  war  against 
this  Amorite  king.  Sihon,  was  short  and  decisive.  The  whole 
of  the  Belka,  or  country  between  the  Arnon  and  the  Jabbok, 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Israelites. 

After  the  conquest  over  this  formidable  "  Sihon,  king  of 
the  Amorites,"  the  Israelites  do  not  appear  to  have  hastened 
to  the  Jordan  ;  but,  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  no  en- 
emies must  be  left  in  their  rear  to  follow  and  harass  them. 


PORTER  S   RESEARCHES. 


103 


they  marched  far  northward,  past  the  Gilead  range,  to  that 
great  and  fruitful  tract  of  Bashan,  south  of  Damascus  and  east 
of  the  Sea  of  Gahlee.  The  capital  city,  or  one  of  the  two 
capitals,  rather,  was  Edrei,  whose  ruins,  according  to  Mr.  Por- 
ter, may  be  seen  even  now,  on  a  high,  isolated  bluff  at  the 
south-west  corner  of  the  Ledja.  But  whether  this  place,  or 
Dera  on  the  Hieromax,  designates  the  site  of  the  ancient  Ed- 
rei, the  journey  was  a  long  one  northward.    The  recent  discov 


STONE  DOOR  OF  AN  ANCIENT  HOUSE. 
{Taken  from  one  of  Porter's  sketches  in  tJie  district  east  of  the  fordan^ 


eries  made  by  Mr.  Porter,  and  announced  in  his  work  called 
"The  Giant  Cities  of  Bashan,"  are  of  a  very  great  interest. 
The  construction  of  the  houses,  and  the  size  of  the  sarcophagi 
found  there,  are  such  as  to  convince  him  that  he  has  really 
brought  to  light  the  very  home  and  tomb  of  Og,  king  of  Ba- 
shan. However  this  may  be,  there  is  a  striking  coincidence 
between  the  cities  of  Bashan,  as  they  are  described  in  Deut. 
iii.  5,  and  those  cities — they  can  not  be  called  ruins — which 


104  OG,   THE   GIANT   KING   OF   BASHAN. 

Prof.  Porter  has  brought  to  light  within  the  last  few  y'ears. 
"  All  these  cities  were  fenced  with  high  walls,  gates,  and  bars." 
All  of  these  features  remain,  and,  in  addition  to  them,  places 
of  sepulture,  which  appear  as  if  intended  for  persons  of  no 
ordinary  stature.  Moreover,  we  are  distinctly,  though  only 
incidentally,  told  that  Og,  king  of  Bashan,  remained,  of  the 
race  of  giants ;  and  his  iron  bedstead  was  long  preserved  in 
token  of  the  gigantic  stature  of  the  man. 

The  Israelites  overran  the  whole  of  Bashan,  subduing 
Argob,  with  its  threescore  cities,  that  tract  of  black  rock  east 
of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  so  little  known  to  us  till  Mr.  Porter 
brought  its  distinctive  characteristics  to  light.  They  were 
then  masters  of  the  whole  tract  east  of  the  Jordan.  From 
the  Arnon  on  the  south  to  Hermon  and  the  borders  of  Damas- 
cus on  the  north,  the  land  was  theirs.  It  was  a  tract  obvi- 
ously adapted  to  pastiurage,  and  immediately  caught  the  eye 
of  the  two  tribes  which  were  especially  eminent  for  the  num- 
ber and  excellence  of  their  flocks.  The  tribes  of  Reuben  and 
Gad  requested  to  have  their  portions  assigned  to  them  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Jordan,  and  their  request  was  granted,  on  the 
condition  that  the  fighting  men  should  cross  the  river  with 
the  other  tribes,  and,  after  the  conquest  was  effected,  should 
return  and  live  with  their  flocks.  The  division  was  as  follows : 
Moab  was  allowed  to  retain  the  territory  south  of  the  Arnon, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  hold  the  cities  of  the  tract  taken  by 
the  Israelites  from  the  Amorite  king.  Indeed,  the  fact  that 
Moab  was  always  more  highly  civilized  than  the  tribe  of  Reu- 
ben allowed  the  two  to  live  side  by  side  in  tolerable  quietness ; 
the  cities  Heshbon,  Aroer,  Dibon,  and  the  rest  being  held  by 
the  Moabites,  while  the  pastoral  Reubenites  dwelt  in  tents, 
and  tended  their  flocks  on  that  fine,  level,  pasture-land.  The 
territory  distinctively  held  by  Reuben,  then,  was  from  the 
Arnon  on  the  south  to  a  line  running  east  and  west  through 
Heshbon.  It  was  bounded  by  the  Dead  Sea  and  the  Jordan 
on  the  west,  while  eastward  the  town  of  Aroer  marked  its 
limits.     As  the  territory  of  Reuben,  it  comes  into  no  promi- 


106  TERRITORY   GIVEN   TO   REUBEN   AND    GAD. 

neiice  in  the  Bible.  Long  known  as  Moab,  it  receives  curse 
on  curse  ;  the  subtle  idolatries  practiced  there,  and,  in  es23ecial, 
the  worship  of  its  god,  Chemosh,  having  exercised  an  irresist- 
ible charm  over  the  Israelites  for  many  centuries  subsequent 
to  the  conquest.  But  Reuben  takes  an  altogether  subordinate 
position.  It  gives  not  a  hero  to  Israel,  it  gives  not  even  a 
solitary  name  to  the  long  list  of  Bible  worthies.  It  sinks  into 
the  peaceful  occupation  of  sheep-tending,  and  gradually  dis- 
ajipears,  its  sons  being  merged,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  the 
primitive  tribes  of  the  region. 

Gad,  which  took  j)Ossession  of  the  lands  farther  north,  was 
of  a  different  stamp.  While  agriculture  was  its  chosen  call- 
ing, so  that  it  too  wanted  to  have  a  share  in  the  rich  grazing- 
lands  east  of  the  Jordan,  it  was  tumultuous,  wild,  martial, 
and  prolific  in  heroes.  While  Reuben  gave  none.  Gad  gave 
Elijah  and  Jephthah,  men  whose  names,  in  their  distinctive 
way,  are  among  the  best  remembered  in  the  long  procession 
of  Jewish  historical  characters.  The  territory  of  Gad  is  more 
indefinitely  marked  than  that  of  Reuben ;  but  as  it  was  first 
assigned,  it  extended  from  a  hne  drawn  east  and  west  through 
Heshbon  northward  to  the  Jabbok,  embracing  the  southern 
half  of  the  mountains  of  Gilead.  Subsequently,  the  ambitious, 
pushing  spirit  of  the  Gadites  made  them  more  than  a  match 
for  the  w^arlike  and  powerful  half-tribe  of  Manasseh,  which 
occupied  Bashan  and  the  northern  half  of  the  Gilead  range, 
and  we  see  the  more  southern  tribe  thrusting  itself  northward 
to  the  very  verge  of  the  Hauran.  I  should  not  omit  to  state 
that  in  the  original  allotment  to  Gad  was  the  whole  of  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  Jordan,  the  fertile  valley  which  lies  be- 
tween the  river  and  the  rock-wall  on  the  east,  aiKl  which  ex- 
tends from  the  Sea  of  Galilee  to  the  Dead  Sea. 

There  ^vas  still  another  tribe, — one  which  has  been  alluded 
to  by  name, — Half-Manasseh,  which  shared  in  the  division  of 
the  lands  east  of  the  Jordan.  The  cause  which  prompted  Reu- 
ben and  Gad  to  ask  for  a  tract  there  was  not  operative  with 
Half-Manasseh.     This  powerful  tribe,  one  of  the  most  war- 


THE  "snowy"  mount  hermon.  107 

like  and  grasping  of  all,  craved  the  privilege  of  seizing  and 
possessing  that  natm-al  fastness,  the  northern  half  of  GQead, 
and  the  almost  inaccessible  rocks  of  Argob  and  of  Eastern 
Bashan.  It  would  seem  that  the  conquest  of  Og  had  so  far 
subdued  the  land,  that  Israel  had  no  further  occasion  to  fear ; 
yet  to  enter  into  it  and  possess  it  wholly,  required  a  longer  and 
more  stoutly-contested  campaign  than  the  speedy  one  against 
Og.  To  accomplish  this  was  the  wish,  as  it  was  the  act,  of 
the  powerful  half-tribe  of  Manasseh.  This  territory,  when 
subdued,  comprised  that  part  of  Gilead  which  was  north  of 
the  Jabbok,  and  extended  north  as  far  as  to  Hermon.  The 
ancient  unportance  of  that  grand,  snow-crowned  peak  is  testi- 
fied by  the  fact  that  the  Bible  gives  us,  in  connection  with  the 
story  of  the  Israelitish  conquests,  four  names  for  Hermon, 
three  in  addition  to  its  familiar  designation, — Sion,  or  the  ele- 
vated, the  Sidonian  name  Sirion,  and  the  Amorite  name  Shenir. 
Not  more  marked  is  it  now,  as  the  natural  bound- 
ary of  Western  Palestine,  than  it  was  when  the  Israelites 
were  capturing  the  district  east  of  the  river.  It  was  then  the 
"  snowy  "  Hermon ;  and  one  of  the  names  by  wliich  the  Arabs 
designate  it  at  the  present  day  likewise  means  "  the  snowy." 

From  the  preceding  sketch  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Israelites 
broke  away  at  once  from  the  limit  which  had  been  set  by 
Abraham  when  he  parted  from  Lot ;  indeed,  they  wandered 
so  far  from  it  that  the  circle  of  the  Jordan,  that  rich  intervale 
which  accompanied  the  winding  coirrse  of  the  river,  origmally 
chosen  by  Lot,  was  included  in  the  domain  of  Gad.  The  only 
•adherence  to  the  compact  between  Abraham  and  Lot  is  seen 
in  the  fact  that  the  Israelites  did  not  attack  the  Moabites  and 
the  Ammonites,  both  the  descendants  of  Lot  by  the  dark 
incest  of  his  daughters.  The  war  was  against  the  Amorites 
and  the  king  of  Bashan,  not  against  the  distant  kinsmen  of 
the  invading  Israelites. 

Only  one  more  people  comes  prominently  into  view  before 
we  see  the  Israehtes  taking  their  way  down  into  the  Jordan 
Valley  opposite  Jericho.    They  are  a  branch  of  the  Midianites. 


^1  ^!i-   J 


MOUNT  HERMON  FROM  NEAR  TIBERIAS- 


BALAAM,  THE  GREAT  HEATHEN  PROPHET.     -109 

We  have  already  seen  portions  of  this  tribe  in  the  Sinai 
Peninsula ;  we  have  alluded  too  to  their  main  home  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Gulf  of  Akabah ;  but  now  we  discover 
that  they  were  a  tribe  very  widely  scattered,  skirting  the  east- 
ern border  of  Seir,  Moab,  and  Ammon,  and  extending  as  far 
as  to  the  Euphrates.  Balaam,  the  great  heathen  prophet,  was 
a  Midianite,  yet  his  home  was  in  Mesopotamia.  The  influence 
of  this  corru2it  race  was  only  bad ;  the  profligacy  and  licen- 
tiousness which  it  engendered  being  so  great  as  to  bring  down 
a  plague  upon,  the  people,  and  make  it  necessary  for  Israel  to 
visit  them  with  an  almost  exterminating  war, — a  war  in  which 
five  of  the  kings  of  Midian  perished,  and  in  which  Balaam, 
the  great  prophet,  also  fell  by  the  sword. 

The  exact  position  of  the  two  mountains,  which  have  been 
made  famous  as  well  as  interesting,  the  one  by  the  ascent  of 
Balaam,  the  other  by  that  of  Moses,  remains,  and  will  prob- 
ably always  remain,  unknown  to  us.  Among  the  peaks  of 
Moab  are  many  from  which  the  same  commanding  view  could 
be  had  which  was  gained  by  both  Balaam  and  Moses  ;  for  al- 
though, as  one  looks  at  the  rock-wall  of  Moab  from  Palestine, 
it  seems  to  have  no  commanding  suramits,  yet  those  who  have 
crossed  the  Jordan,  and  explored  those  almost  unvisited  spaces, 
report  that  the  mountains  have  a  much  more  marked  individ- 
uality than  would  be  believed  possible.  According  to  the  tes- 
timony of  the  Englishman  Palmer,  "  When  their  summits  are 
attained,  a  wholly  new  scene  bursts  upon  the  view,  unlike 
any  thing  which  could  be  expected  from  below,  unlike  any 
thing  in  Western  Palestine.  A  wide  table-land  appears,  tossed 
about  in  wild  confusion  of  undulating  downs,  clothed  with 
rich  grasses  throughout,  and,  in  the  northern  parts,  with  mag- 
nificent forests  of  sycamore,  beech,  terebinth,  ilex,  and  enor- 
mous fig-trees."  While  the  rich,  well-wooded,  well-watered 
districts  of  Moab,  Gilead,  and  Bashan  were  to  be  seen,  in  all 
those  charms  which  fascinated  the  heart  of  Reuben  and  Gad, 
the  distant  view,  that  across  the  Jordan,  is  not  to-day,  and 
could  hardly  have  been  then,  such  as  to  correspond  with  the 


110  THE   BORDERS   OF   THE    "PROMISED   LAND." 

glowing  language  of  the  spies  who  had  been  sent  up  from  the 
desert.  It  may  be  true,  as  Stanley  suggests,  that  to  one  who 
stands  on  the  bights  of  Moab  and  looks  westward  across  the 
Jordan  at  the  hills  of  Judah  and  Ephraim,  "their  monoto- 
nous character  is  lost,  and  the  range  when  seen  as  a  whole  is 
in  the  highest  degree  diversified  and  imj)ressive ; "  yet  those 
brown  and  treeless  hills,  and  those  waterless  ravines  which 
could  be  traced  westward  from  the  Jordan  Valley,  would  con- 
trast most  unfavorably  with  the  rich  and  well-watered  land 
east  of  the  river.  Robinson  testifies  that  nowhere  in  the  whole 
course  of  his  wanderings  did  he  meet  such  a  wealth  of  springs 
and  running  brooks  as  in  the  district  south-east  of  the  Dead 
Sea.  And  most  of  the  territory  northward  is  not  unworthy 
to  be  ranked  far  beyond  Palestine  proper  in  all  the  elements 
which  enrich  a  people.  The  Bible  shows  us,  in  its  indirect 
way,  that  the  trans-Jordanic  district  had  from  time  immemorial 
been  in  the  possession  of  the  most  powerful  tribes  in  the  whole 
region.  Those  allusions  to  the  Rephaim,  the  Emim,  and 
Zamzummim,  merely  indicate  that  those  races  of  giants  held, 
by  the  tenure  of  their  might,  the  most  valuable  territory  of  all 
Southern  Syria.  On  what  grounds,  then,  do  we  find  Moses 
straining  his  sight  to  look  across  the  river,  striving  to  catch  a 
glimpse  of  what  he  was  not  permitted  to  enter?  Caleb  and 
Joshua,  his  near  and  trusted  friends,  had  traversed  the  whole 
length  of  Western  Palestine,  from  Beersheba  to  Dan:  he 
might  have  learned  from  them  that  what  lay  beyond  was  not 
a  rival  to  that  which  the  valor  of  the  Israelites  had  already 
secured.  The  original  promise  made  to  Abraham  extended  to 
the  Euphrates.  Without  taking  one  thing  into  account,  it 
would  appear  wonderful  that  the  Hebrew  leader  should  have 
wished  to  take  further  risks,  and  not  have  settled  down  into 
the  quiet  and  secure  pastoral  life  to  which  the  plains  of  Moab 
and  the  slopes  of  Gilead  invited  the  wearied  tribes.  Yet, 
though  the  Scripture  does  not  hint  at  what  passed  in  the  mind 
of  Moses,  we  can  not  doubt  that  a  man  so  observant  as  he 
would  see  that  the  country  was  without  natural  means  of  de- 


112  •  SCENE   OF   MOSES"   DEATH. 

fense.  At  the  north,  in  Bashan,  and  in  parts  of  Gilead,  the 
rugged  ravines  and  frowning  battlements  of  rock  might  serve 
as  a  partial  protection  ;  yet  only  a  race  always  in  readiness  for 
war,  a  nation  of  warrior-shepherds,  could  hold,  with  any  se- 
curity, the  pasture-lands  of  the  south.  As.  the  Emim  and 
Zamzummim  had  quailed  before  Chedorlaomer  and  the  other 
kings  of  the  East,  and  had  at  last  been  exterminated  by  the 
Moabites  and  the  Ammonites ;  as  the  Ammonites  had  just 
yielded  to  Moses,  and  even  Og,  in  the  intrenchments  of  Ba- 
shan, had  confessed  him  conqueror,  so  in  turn  the  Israehtes 
might  be  the  prey  of  some  stronger  and  more  disciphned  race 
which  should  sweep  through  that  unprotected  land.  There- 
fore it  was,  as  it  appears  to  me,  that  his  eye  measured  the  long 
line  of  hills  across  the  Jordan,  traversed  the  steep  gorges  which 
run  up  westward  from  the  Jordan  to  the  great  dorsal  ridge  of 
Palestine,  and  felt  secure  in  the  thought  that  the  "mountains 
of  the  Amorites,"  as  the  great  line  of  water-shed  is  called  in 
the  Bible, — the  high  lands  from  Hebron  to  Shechem, — would 
afford  the  most  secure  and  undisturbed  shelter  to  his  people, 
age  after  age.  It  is  not  a  little  curious  that  the  only  tradition 
claiming  any  value  in  that  country  is  the  Mahometan  one  that 
puts  the  mountain  where  Moses  died  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Jordan,  and  north-west  of  the  Dead  Sea.  The  ruins  of  a  small 
mosque  attest  the  mountain  of  the  Moslem  tradition.  Yet 
the  tale  is  clearly  an  idle  one.  Though  the  place  of  Moses' 
sepulture  is  closely  concealed  by  the  Seriptures,  and  though 
we  do  not  know  which  mountain  of  the  rocky  tract  Pisgah 
was  consecrated  to  the  Moabite  god  Nebo,  and  bore  his  name, 
still  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  lay  on  the  eastern  .side  of 
the  Jordan,  and  confronted  the  city  of  Jericho.  The  spot 
which  has  been  pointed  out  with  the  most  probability  is  a  peak 
a  short  distance  southward  of  Heshbon,  which  was  ascended 
by  Mr.  Porter,  and  from  which  a  view  of  surpassing  extent 
could  be  gained.  From  that,  or  any  one  of  the  range  to  which 
it  belongs,  Balaam  could  look  across  the  Dead  Sea  and  see  the 
steep  rocks  where  the  Kenites  clustered,  and  which  served 


VIEW  FROM  THE  SUPPOSED  PLACE  OF  MOSES'  DEATH.  113 

tliem  instead  of  houses ;  he  could  also  reach  with  his  eye  the 
south  country,  and  discern  the  tents  of  the  rovmg  Amalekites ; 
and,  in  the  distance,  he  could  descry  the  blue  line  of  the  Med- 
iterranean, over  which  the  ships  of  Chittim  should  sail ;  whde 
far  to  the  south  were  the  purple  hills  of  Edom.  Nor  is  Moses 
represented  as  compassmg  an  area  any  less  limited.  From  Dan, 
at  the  extreme  north,  and  under  the  very  shadow  of  Hermon, 
to  the  south  country,  the  home  of  Abraham  and  Isaac,  from 
the  plain  of  Jericho  to  the  Mediterranean, — aU  this  is  dis- 
tinctly recorded  in  the  closing  verses  of  Deuteronomy  as  fall- 
ing within  the  scope  of  his  vision.  Balaam  lived  to  go  down,* 
and  was  slam  fighting  against  the  nation  his  tongue  was  con- 
strained to  bless,  while  Moses  remained  in  the  mountain  and 
died ;  "  but  no  man  knoweth  of  his  sepulcher  to  this  day." 

"  On  these  brows,"  writes  Tristram,  "  overlooking  the  mouth 
of  the  Jordan,  over  against  Jericho,  we  halted  and  gazed  on  a 
prospect  on  which  it  has  been  permitted  to  few  European 
eyes  to  feast. 

"  As  the  eye  tiu'ns  southward  toward  the  line  of  the  ridge 
on  which  we  were  elevated,  the  peak  of  Jebel  Shihan  just 
stood  out  behind  Jebel  Attarus,  which  opened  to  reveal  to  us 
the  situation  of  Kerak,  though  not  its  walls.  Beyond  and 
behind  these,  sharply  rose  Mts.  Hor  and  Seir,  and  the  rosy 
granite  peaks  of  Arabia  faded  away  into  the  distance  toward 
Akabah.  Stdl  turning  westward,  m  fi'ont  of  us,  two  or  three 
lines  of  terraces  reduced  the  hight  of  the  plateau  as  it  de- 
scended to  the  Dead  Sea,  the  western  outline  of  which  we 
could  trace  in  its  full  extent,  from  Usdum  to  Feshkah.  It  lay 
like  a  long  strip  of  molten  metal,  with  the  sun  mirrored  on 
its  surface,  waving  and  undulating  in  its  farther  edge,  unseen 
in  its  eastern  limits,  as  though  poured  from  some  deep  cavern 
beneath  our  feet.  There,  almost  in  the  center  of  the  line,  a 
break  in  the  ridge,  and  a  green  spot  below,  marked  Engedi, 
the  nest  once  of  the  Kenite,  now  of  the  wdd  goat.  The 
fortress  of  Masada  and  jagged  Shukif  rose  above  the  moun- 
tain line,  but  still  far  below  us,  and  lower  too  than  the  ridge 


114 


AN   ENCHANTING   VIEW. 


of  Hebron,  which  we  could  trace  as  it  lifted  gradually  from 
the  south-west,  as  far  as  Bethlehem  and  Jerusalem.  The 
buildings  of  Jerusalem  we  could  not  see,*  though  all  the 
familiar  points  in  the  neighborhood  were  at  once  identified. 
There  was  the  Mount  of  Olives,  with  the  church  at  its  top,  the 
gap  in  the  hills  leading  up  from  Jericho,  and  the  rounded 
bights  of  Benjamin  on  its  other  side.  Still  turning  northward, 
the  eye  was  riveted  by  the  deep  Ghor  [Jordan  Valley],  with 
the  rich  green  islets  of  Ain  Sultan  and  Ain  Duk, — bright 
twins,  nestling,  as  it  were,  under  the  wall  of  Quarantania. 

There,  closer  still  beneath 
us,  had  Israel's  last  camp 
extended,  in  front  of  the 
green  fringe  which  peeped 
forth  from  under  the  ter- 
races in  our  foreground. 
The  dark,  sinuous  bed  of 
the  Jordan,  clearly  defined 
near  its  mouth,  was  soon 
lost  in  dim  haze.  Then, 
looking  over  it,  the  eye 
rested  on  Gerizim's  round- 
ed top  ;  and,  farther  still, 
opened  the  plain  of  Es- 
draelon,  the  shoulder  of 
Carmel,  or  some  other  in- 
tervening hight  just  showing  at  the  right  of  Gerizim ;  while 
the  distant  bluish  haze  beyond  it  told  us  that  there  was  the 
sea,  '  the  utmost  sea.'  It  seemed  as  if  but  a  whiff  were 
needed  to  brush  off  the  haze  and  reveal  it  clearly.  North- 
ward, again,  rose  the  distinct  outline  of  unmistakable  Tabor, 
aided  by  which  we  could  identify  Gilboa  and  Jebel  Duhy. 
Snowy  Hermon's  top  was  mantled  with  clouds,  and  Lebanon's 
highest  range  must  have  been  exactly  shut  behind  it ;  but  in 


AIN  SULTAN. 


♦  "  This  must  have  been  from  a  slight  haze,  or  want  of  power  in  our  glasses,  as 
the  point  where  we  stood  is  certainly  visible  from  the  roof  of  the  English  church." 


BALAAM  AND   THE   SCENE   OF   HIS  VISION.  115 

front,  due  north  of  us,  stretched  in  long  line  the  dark  forests 
of  Ajlun,  bold  and  undulating,  with  the  steep  sides  of  moun- 
tains here  and  there  whitened  by  cliffs,  terminating  in  Mt. 
Gilead,  behind  Es  Salt.  To  the  north-east,  the  vast  Hauran 
stretched  beyond,  filling  in  the  horizon  line  to  the  Belka, 
between  which  and  the  Hauran  [Bashan]  there  seems  to  be 
no  natural  line  of  separation.  The  tall  range  of  Jebel  Hau- 
ran, behind  Bozrah,  was  distinctly  visible. 

"  We  did  indeed  congratulate  each  other  on  the  privilege 
of  having  gazed  on  this  superb  panorama,  which  will  live  in 
memory's  eye.  '  And  the  Lord  showed  him  all  the  land  of 
Gilead,  unto  Dan,  and  all  Naphtali,  and  the  land  of  Ephraim, 
and  Manasseh,  and  all  the  land  of  Judah,  unto  the  utmost 
sea,  and  the  south,  and  the  plain  of  the  valley  of  Jericho,  the 
city  of  palm-trees,  unto  Zoar.'"     (Deut.  xxxiv.  1-3.) 

It  was  a  descent  of  more  than  four  thousand  feet  from  the 
summit  of  those  Abarim  mountains  which  witnessed  the 
vision  of  Balaam  and  Moses,  to  the  "  plains  of  Moab,"  the 
Scripture  name  for  the  eastern  side  of  the  Jordan  Valley  at 
Jericho.  From  the  ordinary  level  of  that  table-land  was  a 
descent  of  about  two  thousand  feet.  The  course  of  the 
Israelites  may  be  traced  with  apparent  certainty  down  the 
Wady  Hesban,  a  ravine  which  descends  from  Heshbon,  to 
the  Jordan,  and  which  still  retains  the  name  of  the  ancient 
city  which  lay  at  its  head.  They  came  out  upon  a  place 
where  even  now  may  be  seen  the  acacias  which  gave  the 
place  its  name  of  Abel  Shittim,  "  the  groves  of  acacia-trees." 

"  The  difference  between  the  upper  and  lower  ground  in 
respect  to  soil  and  climate  is  .as  great  as  can  be  imagined.  In 
aspect,  temperature,  and  products,  the  valley  is  tropical  in 
character,  so  that  the  Hebrews  passed  as  if  into  another  zone 
when  they  came  down  into  it.  In  its  southern  extremity, 
where  it  opens  on  the  gloomy,  mist-covered  waters  of  the  as- 
phaltic  lake,  it  is  not  less  than  twelve  miles  in  width.  There, 
open  and  level  on  all  sides,  it  forms  a  space  on  which  many 
armies  might  be  encamped.     Over  its  whole  extent  it  was 


116  A   SPLENDID  VIEW. 

lined  and  striped  by  thick  belts  of  verdure,  in  its  numerous 
groves  of  acacia  and  nukb,  and  of  palms.  The  general  du"ec- 
tion  of  the  valley  itself  for  the  sixty  miles  between  Lake  Ti- 
berias and  the  Dead  Sea  is  tolerably  straight ;  but  deep  in  its 
very  bottom  the  river  winds — it  has  been  said  that  it  wriggles 
— along  like  a  gigantic  serpent  [so  that  the  length  of  the 
channel  is  not  sixty,  but  two  hundred  miles].  The  ground 
descends  steeply  all  the"  way  to  the  southern  opening  of  the 
valley  at  the  head  of  the  Dead  Sea ;  and  its  depth  and  close- 
ness, as  well  as  the  reflection  from  the  heated  rocks  on  either 
side,  give  a  tropical  character  to  the  climate.  The  square, 
monotonous  range  of  hills  that  support  the  eastern  highlands 
rises  up  on  that  side  for  nearly  a  hundred  miles,  and  on  the 
other  are  the  gray,  parched  hills  of  Ephraim  and  Jordan, 
broken  and  irregular,  and  of  much  smaller  altitude.  The 
Israelites  had  never  looked,  in  one  yiew,  on  such  an  ample 
space,  so  clothed  in  what  would  seem  to  them  a  boundless 
profusion  of  luxuriant  vegetation ;  and  then  there  was  a  rapid 
stream,  flowing  deep  in  its  low  channel  through  the  thickly- 
clustered  trees,  under  whose  cool  shades  they  could  stay  and 
rest  in  voluptuous  indulgence.  The  aged  leaders  would  think 
less  of  the  Jordan  when  they  remembered  the  broad  waters  of 
the  Nile,  and  the  fatness  of  the  Egyptian  soil ;  but  for  the  mul- 
titudes, this  was  the  first  river  that  they  had  seen ;  and  not 
even  in  the  fertile  and  beautiful  region  above  them,  whence 
they  had  descended,  was  there  more  exuberant  abundance, 
especially  at  the  season  when  they  came  into  the  valley, 
which  was  the  full  harvest-time,  when  it  was  covered  with 
the  richest  crops,  and  when  the  trees  were  thick  with  the 
blossoming  promise  of  their  luscious  fruit.  The  depth  of  the 
valley,  and  the  hights  on  either  side  reflecting  the  sun's  rays, 
made  the  climate  hot  and  relaxing,  especially  at  the  season 
when  they  encamped  in  it.  But  they  could  bear  this  the 
more  easily  on  account  of  the  ample  shade  which  they  found 
in  the  acacia  grove  where  they  were  stationed."  * 

*rroni  Drew's  Scripture  Lands. 


I  lllllll'llfe 


::'liiii  I'lltil! 


■:W;L 


It  III" 


118  ALLOTMENT   OF   WESTERN    PALESTINE. 

Before  we  follow  the  Israelites  across  the  Jordan,  we  must 
glance  a  moment  at  that  allotment  of  Western  Palestine 
which  was  made  by  Moses, — we  know  not  just  how  long  be- 
fore his  death, — and  the  details  of  which  he  received  in  part 
from  the  report  of  the  spies.  The  account  is  "given  in  the 
thirty-fourth  chapter  of  Numbers,  and,  with  some  slight  modi- 
fications of  the  eastern  boundary,  in  the  forty-seventh  of 
Ezekiel.  Though  some  of  the  minor  places  have  not  as  yet 
been  identified  with  existing  sites,  still  enough  remains  to 
show  how  he  marked  out  the  boundaries  of  the  Israelitish 
territory,  and  how  carefully  he  adapted  himself  to  the  natural 
frontiers  of  the  country.  The  southern  border  he  defines  to 
run  from  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  the  Dead  Sea  across 
the  Arabah,  taking  in  Kadesh-barnea,  and  skirting  Edom,  to 
pass  on  by  the  steep  ascent  of  Akrabbim,  the  last  pass  which 
led  from  the  desert  up  to  the  hill-country,  and  then  to  run 
westward  through  the  towns  of  Hazar-addar  and  Azmon 
(neither  identified  with  certainty)  to  Wady  el  Arish,  an  im- 
portant ravine  which  runs  from  the  heart  of  the  Sinai  Penin- 
sula north-eastward,  and  emerges  upon  the  Mediterranean 
shore  at  the  old  city  of  Rhinocolura,  south-west  of  Gaza. 
This  ravine  bears  uniformly  in  the  Bible  the  name  "  River  of 
Egypt,"  it  being  considered  the  beginning  of  the  Egyptian 
domain.  The  southern  border  ended  naturally  at  the  sea. 
The  western  was  the  Mediterranean  coast-line  northward  to 
the  point  where  the  great  Lebanon  range  runs  down  almost 
to  the  shore.  This  would  be  the  natural  boundary,  and  this 
was  at  once  accepted  as  the  place  where  the  northern  line 
would  commence.  The  stations  on  this  northern  border  were 
Mt.  Hor,  the  entrance  of  Hamath,  Zedad,  Ziphron,  and  Hazar- 
enan.  Of  these  we  must  say  that  Mt.  Hor  is  probably  to  be 
identified  with  the  whole  Lebanon  range  ;  no  other  prominent 
elevation,  or  system  of  elevations,  in  that  region  would  seem 
to  answer  the  conditions.  By  the  entrance  to  Hamath  is 
meant,  with  much  probability,  the  narrow  valley  between  the 
Lebanon  and  the  Anti-Lebanon,  which  was  the  most  striking 


AQUEDUCT  AND  PART  OF  THE  TOWN  OF  HAMAH,  (ANCIENT  HAMATH.) 

Frott  Laborde. 


120  HAMATH  AND   ITS   ANTIQUITIES. 

feature  to  a  man  of  Palestine  as  he  went  northward,  and 
passed  between  these  great  chains  on  his  way  to  the  im2)ortant 
city  of  Hamath. 

From  the  "entrance  of  Hamath"  the  border-hne  was  drawn 
north-east  toward  the  city  of  Hamath,  then  south-east  by 
Ziphron,  Zedad  and  Hazar-enan.     (Num.  xxxiv.  8,  9.) 

*'  Hamath,"  writes  Mr.  Porter,  "  is  a  quaint  old  city.  If 
one  could  fancy  Pompeii  restored  and  repeopled  with  men  and 
women,  whose  moldering  bones  are  now  being  dug  up  from  its 
ruins,  it  would  not  present  a  greater  contrast  to  the  modern 
cities  of  the  West  than  Hamath.  For  thirty  centuries  or  more, 
life  has  been  at  a  stand-still  there.  Everything  is  patriarchal, 
— costumes,  manners,  salutations,  occupations.  The  venerable 
elders  who,  with  turbaned  heads,  flowing  beards,  and  flowing 
robes,  sit  daily  in  the  gates,  might  pass  for  the  elders  of  the 
children  of  Heth,  who  bargained  with  Abraham  in  the  gates 
of  Kirjath-arba ;  and  the  Arab  sheiks,  who  ever  and  anon 
pass  in  and  out,  armed  with  sword  and  sj)ear,  are  no  unworthy 
representatives  of  the  fiery  Ishmael.  There  is  no  town  in 
the  world  in  which  primeval  life  can  be  seen  in  such  purity  as 
in  Hamath.  The  people  glory  in  it.  No  greater  insult  could 
be  offered  to  them  than  to  contrast  Hamath  with  the  cities  of 
the  infidel.  The  site  of  Hamath  is  picturesque.  It  stands  in 
the  deep  glen  of  the  Orontes,  whose  broad,  rapid  stream 
divides  it  through  the  center.  The  banks  are  lined  with 
jDoplars,  and  queer  houses  rise  like  terraces  along  the  steep 
slopes.  Four  bridges  span  the  stream  and  connect  the  two 
quarters  of  the  city.  The  remains  of  antiquity  are  nearly  all 
gone ;  the  citadel  is  a  vast  mound  of  rubbish ;  the  mosques 
are  falling  to  ruin ;  and  the  private  houses,  though  in  a  few 
cases  splendidly  decorated  within,  are  shapeless  piles  of  mud 
and  timber.     Hamath  has  still  thirty  thousand  inhabitants." 

Of  the  other  stations  on  the  northern  border,  Zedan,  Ziph- 
ron, and  Hazar-enan,  there  is  not  much  to  be  said,  so  unfixed 
is  our  knowledge  regarding  those  localities.  Mr.  Porter  in 
his  "  Five  Years  in  Damascus,"  and  in  his  later  book,  "  The 


THE  OLD   BOKDER    LINE.  121 

Giant  Cities  of  Bashan,"  has,  it  is  true,  conjecturally  identified 
these  places  with  some  Arab  villages  visited  by  him ;  still, 
notwithstanding  the  general  sobriety  of  his  judgment,  I  think 
that  in  this  case  he  has  allowed  his  fancy  to  mislead  him. 
We  have  not  yet  the  data  for  laying  down  with  exactness  the 
northern  and  a  part  of  the  eastern  boundary-line. 

The  eastern  border,  gi^fen  in  the  forty-seventh  chapter  of 
Ezekiel,  differs  from  that  assigned  by  Moses  in  the  thirty^ 
fourth  chapter  of  Numbers.  The  main  difference  in  the  two, 
speaking  briefly,  is  that  Moses  excluded  the  kingdom  of  Da- 
mascus from  the  territory  which  he  promised,  while  Ezekiel 
represents  that  kingdom  as  included  in  what  appeared  to  him 
in  his  vision.  According  to  Moses'  assignment,  the  eastern 
line  was  to  run  southward  fi'om  Hazar-enan  to  Riblah  ;  thence 
to  the  sea  of  Chinnereth,  or  Galilee ;  and  so  on  down  the 
Jordan  to  the  Dead  Sea.  Neither  Shepham  nor  Riblah,  on 
the  eastern  border,  is  known ;  Ain,  the  fountain  spoken  of  in 
connection  with  this  boundary,  has  been  thought  by  Porter 
not  to  be  the  great  spring  of  Banias ;  but  not  only  does  the 
importance  of  that  fountain  indicate  the  probability  that  it 
was  the  one  laid  down  in  the  Mosaic  narration,  but  the  older 
authorities  agree  in  assigning  the  name  "  Ain,"  or  the  foun- 
tain, to  the  great  Jordan  spring  of  Banias.  The  exact  laying- 
down  of  the  Mosaic  boundary-line  is  unnecessary ;  and  we 
can  see  enough  to  enable  us  to  discern  how  clearly  he  described 
the  leading  geographical  features  of  the  land, — how  his  mmd 
grasped  the  truth  that  the  Lebanon  and  Anti-Lebanon  ranges 
must  terminate  the  northern  border,  and  that  the  eastern  one 
must  follow  the  line  which  separates  the  Anti-Lebanon  slopes 
from  the  great  desert  on  the  east.  Here  was  the  only  place 
which  demanded  rigid  knowledge  and  sound  judgment;  and 
Moses  demonstrated,  even  in  this,  the  same  wonderful  com- 
mand of  resources  which  characterized  his  whole  course. 


CHAPTER   Vn. 

PASSAGE  OF  THE  JORDAN,  AND  BEGINNING  OF  THE  CONQUEST. 

Fording  the  Jordan — Depth  in  Summer — In  Spring — In  Winter — Melting  Snows 
of  Hermon — When  the  Israelites  Crossed — Harvest  Season — No  Bridges  then 
over  the  Jordan — Comparison  with  our  American  Rivers — Giigal,  the  Place 
of  the  First  Encampment — What  Remains  of  It — Ruins  of  Jericho — Palms 
and  Roses  of  that  City — Vices  of  the  Arabs  There — The  Man  who  Fell 
among  Thieves — Natural  Highway  up  to  the  Mountains — Route  from  Jeri- 
cho to  Ai — Taking  of  Ai — Ebal  and  Gerizim — Setting  Up  of  the  Law — Visit 
of  the  Gibeonites — Their  Disguise — The  Five  Kings — Joshua  as  a  Military 
Leader — Battle  of  Beth-horon — The  Scene  of  the  Contest — Slaughter  of  the 
Kings — "Sun,  Stand  Still" — The  Great  Miracle — Battle  of  Hazor. 

HE  passage  of  the  Jordan  by  the  Israelites  brmgs 
us  to  the  consideration  of  some  of  the  geographical 
characteristics  of  the  river.  The  place  was  "over 
against  Jericho,"  and  probably  not  far  from  that  Helu  ford 
which  was  attempted  by  Robinson  without  success,  and  which 
has  been  crossed  without  swimming  by  no  traveler,  so  far  as 
I  am  aware,  but  the  brave  and  zealous  Seetzen,  in  1807. 
The  Jordan  is  not  fordable  at  all  at  the  time  of  the  spring 
flood;  its  muddy  torrent  is  both  too  deep  and  too  swift. 
Seetzen  waited  at  least  a  week  for  the  waters  to  subside  so  far 
as  to  allow  him  to  venture  to  cross,  and  the  transit,  even  when 
he  did  affect  it,  was  full  of  peril.  In  the  summer-time,  the 
Jordan  can  be  crossed  at  countless  places ;  and  the  repeated 
references  in  the  Old  Testament  to  passages  across  the  river 
must  be  explained  by  the  ease  with  which  the  river  could  be 
forded  in  summer.  But  in  the  spring  it  was  and  is  still  dif- 
ferent. The  winter  rains  fill  the  wadies  with  a  rushing,  im- 
petuous tide,  and  the  sides  of  Hermon  early  begin  to  pour 


CROSSING   THE  JORDAN.  123 

down  the  floods  which  the  heat  of  March  and  April  calls  out 
from  the  snow-masses.  To  ford  the  river  then  would  be  im- 
possible. Yet  it  was  just  then  that  the  Israelites  effected  the 
passage.  It  was  the  harvest  season,  the  last  of  March  and  the 
first  of  April ;  it  was  within  four  days  of  the  feast  of  the  Pass- 
over, which  occurred  at  the  same  time.  I  am  as  much  impressed 
as  one  can  be  with  the  draughts  made  upon  our  faith  by  the 
story  of  the  miracle ;  yet  one  is  shut  up  to  the  necessity  of 
accepting  it.  We  learn  the  time  of  the  year  incidentally ;  it 
is  not  wrought  in  as  an  essential  part  of  the  story.  Moreover, 
there  is  no  evidence  that  any  boats  or  bridges  were  in  use 
then  or  in  latter  times  to  effect  the  passage  of  the  Jordan ; 
the  ford  was  then  as  now  (except  where  south  of  the  Sea  of 
Galilee  some  Roman  bridges  remain)  the  only  method  of  tran- 
sit. It  is  singular  how  faithfully  the  Jordan  maintains  at  the 
present  time  the  same  characteristics  which  it  is  represented  in 
the  Bible  as  having.  It  was  a  larger  stream  then,  for  it  drained 
a  better-wooded  country  than  it  does  now  ;  but  the  same  dark, 
muddy  water  which  it  had  then  it  has  now  ;  and  even  the  same 
thickets  which  lined  its  banks  at  the  time  of  Elisha  are  there 
at  the  present  day.  At  the  time  of  the  spring  flood  the  stream 
is  about  one  hundred  feet  in  width ;  narrow,  compared  with 
our  American  rivers,  but  deep  and  swift.  We  find,  on  the 
part  of  the  Israelites,  no  sign  of  a  desire  to  wait  till  the  waters 
should  subside.  The  same  willingness  to  trust  to  the  arm  of 
God  which  had  characterized  Moses  at  the  Red  Sea  now  filled 
the  heart  of  Joshua  at  the  Jordan.  -  The  Israelites  wind  down 
to  the  river  from  the  acacia-groves  where  they  had  tarried, 
the  waters  part,  they  go  through,  and,  from  the  dry  bed,  they 
take  up  twelve  stones  to  set  up  upon  the  western  bank  in  me- 
morial of  the  great  deed  which  had  been  wrought  in  their  be- 
half. 

Still,  while  it  is  impossible  to  see  how  the  herds  and  the 
flocks,  the  women  and  the  children,  the  tabernacle  and  its  ser- 
vice, the  embalmed  body  of  Joseph,  and  the  whole  mass  of 
household  goods  and  utensils,  could  be  transferred  safely  to  the 


124  GILGAL,  THE   FIRST  ENCAMPMENT. 

western  bank  of  the  Jordan  without  the  intervention  of  mira- 
cle ;  yetat  that  season  able  and  sure-footed  men  eould  cross 
either  by  swimming,  or  as  Seetzen  did  in  the  spring  of  1807. 
And  thus  we  know  they  did  do,  for  the  spies  entered  Jericho 
and  returned  to  the  east  bank  of  the  river  before  the  general 
transit  was  effected.* 

Gilgal,  the  place  of  the  Israelites'  first  encampment  west 
of  the  Jordan,  lay  on  the  south-east  of  Jericho,  between  it 
and  the  river.  A  few  shapeless  ruins  mark  the  site  of  what 
long  continued  the  n'lost  sacred  locality  among  the  Jews,  for 
here  the  ark  remained  till  it  was  transferred  to  Shiloh,  upon 
the  crest  of  the  mountain  ridge  of  Palestine.  It  lay  about 
three  miles  from  the  fords  of  the  Jordan,  and  from  one  to  two 
miles  from  Jericho.  There  were  several  places  bearing  the 
name  of  Gilgal ;  but  this  was  the  one  to  which  the  Hebrew 

*  A  very  accomplished  English  traveler,  Mr.  Tristram,  crossed  the  Jordan  a 
few  years  ago  at  the  time  of  the  spring  flood.  To  do  it,  made  it  necessary  to 
ride  horses  across,  while  Arabs  swam  by  the  side  and  held  the  bridle.  Mr.  Tris- 
tram's account  is  so  brief  and  graphic,  that  I  gladly  quote  it,  as  it  throws  light 
upon  the  difficulties  which  beset  an  army  without  horses,  and  accompanied  by 
women,  children,  and  droves  of  cattle.  The  place  where  Mr.  Tristram  crossed 
the  Jordan  was  a  few  miles  above  the  ford  of  Jericho.  He  says :  "  On  both  sides 
the  space  was  thronged  by  about  fifty  tall,  wild-looking  Bedouins,  all  stark  naked, 
swimming  and  riding  a  number  of  bare-backed  horses.  For  a  moment  my  heart 
beat  quick,  as  two  naked  men  seized  my  horse,  and  a  third  snatched  my  gun 

from  me.     I  felt  as  if  set  upon  by  naked  savages.     C was  aliead  of  me,  and 

I  watched  him  and  his  horse  led  into  the  water  by  a  naked  Bedouin,  who  had 
taken  off"  the  bridle,  and  held  his  steed  by  the  halter,  while  another  hung  on  to 
his  tail,  and  a  third  kept  on  the  lee  side  of  the  saddle.  The  stream,  rushing  with 
tremendous  force,  was  about  fifteen  feet  deep.  Meantime  my  saddle-bags  were 
carried  off  and  placed  on  a  man's  head ;  and,  having  taken  off  my  outer  garment, 
I  committed  myself  and  horse  to  the  torrent,  his  halter  being  held  by  a  mounted 
guide.  The  ford  was  very  difficult  and  oblique,  but  the  leader's  horse  was  evi- 
dently experienced ;  while  an  expert  swimmer  kept  to  leeward  of  my  saddle, 
and  held  my  leg  close  to  my  horse.  Following  a  little  way  with  the  stream,  we 
landed  on  the  other  side.  Soon  we  had  all  landed ;  and  now  the  scene  was  of 
the  wildest  and  strangest  beauty.  It  was  such  as  one  might  expect  to  see  in  a 
picture  of  Indians  crossing  an  American  river,  or  of  the  war  in  New  Zealand, 
graced  by  the  accompaniments  of  almost  tropical  vegetation.  We  agreed  that 
sucli  a  spectacle  was  sufficient  to  repay  all  the  negotiations  and  trouble  of  reach- 
ing the  Jordan." 


JERICHO   AND   ITS    REMAINS.  125 

mind  turned  for  ages  witli  instinctive  reverence.  The  twelve 
stones  which  were  taken  up  from  the  bed  of  the  river  were 
carried  to  the  hill  of  Gilgal  and  piled  up  there;  the  whole 
of  the  Israelites  were  circumcised  there;  and  in  the  immedi- 
ate neighborhood  of  Gilgal  the  school  of  the  prophets  sat 
nourishing  itself  from  the  halloAved  memories  of  the  past. 

But  faint  memorials  remain  at  the  present  day  of  that 
opulent,  proud,  and  powerful  city  of  Jericho,  with  its  walls 
and  towers,  which  confronted  the  Israelites  directly  after 
crossing  the  Jordan.  Near  the  profuse  spring  known  as  that 
of  the  Sultan,  there  are  indeed  unmistakable  marks  of  the 
great  natural  fertility  of  that  truly  tropical  plain;  for,  Ij'ing 
as  it  does  thirteen  hundred  feet  below  the  level  of  the  sea, 
and  shut  in  as  it  is  by  the  bare  rock-walls  on  both  sides  of  the 
Ghor,  the  place  has  almost  the  temperature  of  an  oven.  A 
single  tower,  thu'ty  feet  square  and  forty  feet  high,  is  the 
most  conspicuous  object  which  remains  of  the  Jericho  of 
Herod's  tune;  but  of  the  primitive  Jericho,  that  of  Joshua's 
day,  not  a  vestige  is  left.  Some  of  those  mounds  which  dot 
the  plain  might  be  found,  if  opened,  to  contain  fragments  of 
the  ancient  walls  and  towers,  yet  there  will  hardly  be  en- 
countered a  traveler  enterprising  enough  to  try  to  pierce  the 
mystery  of  those  hillocks.  Fragments  of  arches,  aqueducts, 
and  paved  roads  may  be  seen  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
modern  filthy  village  of  Er  Riha ;  but  they  are  only  faint  in- 
dications at  best  of  that  city  which,  although  brought  to  ruins 
so  early  in  the  history  of  Palestine,  yet  blossomed  up  again 
into  such  luxuriant  life.  Not  a  trace  now  remains  to  show 
why  it  was  called  the  City  of ^ Palms,  yet  this  tree  has  waved 
over  the  site  of  Jericho  since  the  beginning  of  the  j)resent 
century.  The  rose  of  Jericho  has  utterly  vanished,  however, 
and  little  that  depends  upon  the  aid  of  man  is  found  in  that 
fertile  valley  to-da}^  but  scanty  crops  of  barley  and  millet  and 
maize.  The  same  vices  which  characterized  the  oldest  known 
cities  of  the  fertile  plain,  Sodom,  Gomorrah,  Admah,  Zeboim, 
and  Zoar,  characterize  the  filthy  Arabs  who  inhabit  the  huts 


126  JERICHO   AND    ITS   REMAINS. 

of  Er  Riha ;  nor  can  we  be  forgetful  of  the  occupation  of 
the  woman  who  gave  the  spies  reception  within  her  own 
house.  Licentiousness,  effeminacy,  bestiality,  have  always 
been  the  besetting  sins  of  that  tropical  valley ;  and  never, 
from  the  time  of  its  capture  down  to  the  time  of  the  Saviour, 
does  Jericho  appear  to  have  fallen  so  low  as  at  the  present 
time.  Yet  even  in  the  Saviour's  day  the  narrow  pass  which 
leads  up  to  Jerusalem  was  the  favorite  resort  of  robbers,  as  it 
is  to-day  ;  and  nowhere  in  Palestine  is  it  more  necessary  to  be 
on  one's  guard.  The  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  has  been 
re-enacted  within  our  own  day,  an  Englishman  being  the  man 
who  "  fell  among  thieves." 

The  site  of  Jericho  is  about  seven  miles  from  the  banks  of 
the  Jordan,  and  the  view  from  the  old  tower  commands  a  view 
of  the  whole  extent  of  intervale.  Much  of  the  land  is  parched 
and  blasted ;  that  to  the  south,  and  lying  between  Er  Riha 
and  the  Dead  Sea,  is  a  desert.  No  doubt  the  whole  place  has 
been  so  changed  in  its  outward  aspect,  that  one  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  ancient  Jericho,  could  he  revisit  the  scene,  would 
scarcely  recognize  the  fair,  fertile  tract  which  the  river-bot- 
toms once  were,  in  the  sterile  plain  of  the  present  day,  show- 
ing only  after  the  heavy  rains  or  near  the  great  Sultan's  Spring, 
what  is  the  natural  capacity  of  the  soil. 

The  natural  highway  from  Jericho  up  to  the  great  water- 
shed of  Palestine  is  not  the  precipice-lined  gorge  which  runs 
from  Jerusalem  down  to  the  Jordan  by  way  of  Bethany.  It 
is  the  way  which  follows  the  broad  and  well-known  Wady 
Suweinit  for  a  distance,  and  then,  under  a  changed  name, 
runs  on  to  Bethel.  There  are,  indeed,  three  minor  wadies 
which  radiate  from  Wady  Suweinit ;  but  the  one  which 
emerges  at  Bethel  is  the  most  direct  and  easy.  Strange  to 
say,  however,  that  tract  is  most  inadequately  explored ;  the 
great  road  by  which  Joshua  went  up  to  the  summit  of  the 
hill-country,  and  the  system  of  wadies  which  lies  in  the  im- 
mediate vicinity  of  Bethel  and  Ai,  are  not  known  as  they 
ought  to  be,  though  the  road  was  one  of  those  most  familiar 


J!//' 


U    I 


Bii, 


I 


TAKING  OF   AI.  129 

to  the  Israelites.  Not  only  did  they  take  it  in  their  conquer- 
ing march  from  Jericho  to  Ai,  but  that  was  the  road  which 
they  must  follow  when  they  went  down  to  offer  their  sacrifices 
at  Gilgal.  Yet  the  general  nature  of  the  pass  is  known ;  we 
can  see  the  thirty  thousand  men  marching  up  to  Ai,  south-east 
of  Bethel  and  in  full  sight  of  it,  though  its  ruins  are  not 
identified  with  certainty ;  we  can  see  Joshua  cunningly  send- 
ing his  select  champions  into  a  high,  unseen  place  beyond  the 
city,  while  he,  with  the  main  body,  encamped  before  it,  and 
then  withdrawing  down  the  valley  toward  Jericho  as  if  un- 
able to  take  the  city.  We  see  the  men  of  Ai,  falhng  into  the 
snare,  passing  confidently  from  the  Avails  of  their  city,  and 
pressing  rapidly  down  toward  the  Jordan  in  pursuit  of  the 
fleeing  Israelites.  Then  we  see  the  delegation,  five  thousand 
strong,  it  would  appear,  emerging  from  their  ambuscade  be- 
tween Bethel  and  Ai,  and  pressmg  after  the  men  of  Ai. 
Joshua  then  turns  and  stems  the  descending  tide  of  Canaan- 
itish  mountaineers.  Caught  between  the  two  forces,  the  men 
of  Ai  are  utterly  cut  off,  and  their  city  reduced  to  ruins.  It 
was,  of  course,  a  momentous  victory,  for  it  opened  the  whole 
line  of  mountain-land  to  them,  and  the  Israehtes  could  press 
on  without  hindrance  northward  or  southward.  It  was  in 
endeavoring  to  make  just  such  an  ascent,  south  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  (see  p.  145,)  and  to  reach  the  high  land  of  Southern  Pal- 
estine, that  they  were  driven  back  to  Hormah,  in  the  Arabah, 
and  compelled  to  spend  those  thkty-eight  hopeless  years  of 
wandering.  The  mihtary  genius  of  Joshua  shines  out  con- 
spicuously in  the  first  instance  where  he  needed  to  use  it. 
Moses  had  lived  just  as  long  as  a  Moses  was  needed,  and  when 
new  emergencies  rose  and  new  talents  were  required,  God  had 
the  right  man  ready  for  'the  field. 

The  main  camp  remained  at  Gilgal,  by  Jericho,  even  after 
Ai  was  taken ;  but  the  next  move  of  any  importance  was  the 
setting-up  of  the  tables  of  the  law  on  Ebal  and  Gerizun,  the 
two  mountains  between  which  lies  that  plain  of  Moreh,  or 
Shechem,  where  Abraham  lingered  long  enough  to  erect  an 


130  SETTING   UP  THE   LAW   ON   GERIZIM. 

altar,  and  where  Jacob  lived  tiU  the  altercations  of  his  sons 
with  the  Canaanites  drove  him  from  the  place.  Under  their 
shadow  is  to  be  seen  even  now  Jacob's  well  and  the  reputed 
tomb  of  Joseph.  It  was  on  Ebal  that  half  of  the  tribes  stood 
and  uttered  the  curses  on  those  Avho  should  disobey  the  law ; 
it  was  on  Gerizim  that  the  other  half  stood  and  recited  those 
impressive  blessings  that  are  recorded  in  Deuteronomy.  It 
was  on  Ebal,  that,  according  to  the  Jewish  reading  of  the 
Pentateuch  (Deut.  xxvii.  4),  an  altar  inscribed  with  the  law 
was  to  be  set  up ;  whereas  the  Samaritan  version  has  Gerizim 
in  the  weU-remembered  passage.  The  differences  in  the  two 
mountains  are  somewhat  marked,  although,  perhaps,  not  as 
much  so  as  the  accounts  of  most  travelers  would  lead  us  to 
infer.  Ebal  is  a  steep,  rocky,  bare,  and  uninteresting  peak, 
and  has  almost  never  been  ascended :  a  few  shapeless  ruins 
are  almost  all  the  human  traces  which  it  offers  to  the  curiosity. 
Its  hight  has  not  been  closely  ascertained,  but  it  is  computed 
to  be  not  much  short  of  thirty-five  hundred  feet.  Gerizim, 
wliich  is  about  five  hundred  feet  lower,  has  been  spoken  of  by 
most  travelers  as  a  "  smiling "  mountain,  covered  with  ver- 
dure, and  showing  on  its  very  face  why  it  was  chosen  as  the 
mount  of  blessings.  Tliis  is  surely  an  exaggerated  statement 
of  what  rests  upon  a  very  slight  foundation.  Indeed,  it  would 
not  be  right  to  omit  saying  that  some  of  our  most  reliable 
modern  tourists  deny  Gerizim  any  superiority  whatever  in 
charm  over  Ebal.  It  has  from  the  remotest  period  been  ac- 
counted a  sacred  mountain ;  and  it  is  supposed  by  Stanley  to 
have  been  the  hight  to  which  Abraham  brought  Isaac  for  sac- 
rifice ;  though  I  can  not  yield  assent  to  this  view.  Gerizim 
is  the  resort  of  pilgrims  every  year  to  witness  the  celebration 
of  the  passover ;  and  one  of  the  most  interesting  portions  of 
Stanley's  Lectures  on  the  Jewish  Church  is  that  appendix  in 
which  he  gives  his  own  account,  as  an  eye-witness,  of  the 
celebration,  in  this  age,  of  that  ancient  feast,  with  ritualistic 
observances  little  changed  by  the  lapse  of  four  thousand  years. 
The  law  having  been  set  up  on  Ebal  or  Gerizim  (according 


HEWEES   OF   WOOD   AND   DRAWEES    OF   WATER.        131 

as  the  Jews  or  Samaritans  are  right  in  their  respective  read- 
ings), the  next  step  of  the  IsraeUtes  was  to  move  quickly  south- 
ward along  the  Palestine  water-shed,  and  then  down  the  ra- 
vine leading  from  Bethel  to  Gilgal  and  Jericho.  It  was  during 
the  brief  pause  after  theii'  return  that  the  memorable  visit  of 
the  Gibeonites  occurred,  which  led  Joshua  into  a  net,  not  so 
dangerous  as  that  which  he  set  for  the  people  of  Ai,  but  quite 
as  subtle.  I  need  not  remind  the  reader  how  the  inhabitants 
of  Gibeon  and  the  neighboring  cities  of  Beeroth,  Khjath- 
jearim,  and  Chephirah  took  moldy  bread  and  burst  wine-sldns, 
and  old  clothes  and  worn-out  shoes,  and  traversed  the  ten  or 
twelve  miles  which  separated  their  homes  from  Gilgal,  and 
pretended  to  come  from  a  distant  country  for  the  pm-pose  of 
testifying  their  allegiance  to  the  God  of  the  Israelites.  The 
trick  was  at  length  discovered,  and,  although  Joshua  could  not 
forfeit  his  word  to  spare  their  lives,  they  were  degraded  into 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,  and  compelled  to  dis- 
charge those  laborious  and  menial  services  for  the  Israelites 
age  after  age.  Those  jDlaces  have  all  been  brought  to  light  by 
the  indefatigable  Robinson.  Their  present  names  are  but  ht- 
tle  changed  from  those  they  bore  in  ancient  times,  Gibeon  be- 
ing Geba,  Beeroth  Birch,  and  Chephirah  Kefur.  Kirjath- 
jearun  has  lost  its  name,  however,  and  is  to  be  identified  with 
Kuryet-el-enab.  They  lie  fi'om  six  to  ten  miles  north  of  Je- 
rusalem, a  little  west  of  the  line  of  water-shed,. Kirjath-jearim 
being  at  the  head  of  an  important  wady  which  leads  toward 
the  Mediterranean  coast. 

The  anger  which  was  kindled  in  the  hearts  of  the  Canaanite 
kings  against  the  Gibeonites  for  not  resisting  the  invaders  at 
the  point  of  the  sword,  led  directly  to  that  great  and  decisive 
battle  of  Beth-horon  wdiich  put  the  Israelites  in  substantial 
possession  of  the  country.  The  five  kings  who  conspired  to 
destroy  Gibeon  for  its  pusillanimous  conduct,  were  those  of 
Jerusalem,  Hebron,  Jarmuth,  Lachish,  and  Eglon, — all  of  them 
places  of  unquestionable  importance.  Of  Jerusalem  and  He- 
bron I  need  not  speak,  except  to  say  that  these  two  cities, 


132  BATTLE  OF  BETH-HORON. 

which  have  befoi'e  met  us  only  in  tiie  attitude  of  peace,  here 
confront  us  with  the  stern  face  of  war.  Abraham  and  Jacob 
were  men  who  passed  up  and  down  through  Palestine,  cher- 
ishing a  promise  of  future  possession,  but  taking  no  steps  to 
attain  it,  and  carefully  abstaining  from  coming  into  conflict 
with  the  people,  always  buying  land  instead  of  wresting  it, 
and  speaking  not  imperiously  but  peaceably  to  the  Canaanites. 
But  when  Joshua  came,  there  was  a  change ;  and  the  chief 
city  of  the  Jebusites  and  that  of  the  Hittites  arrayed  them- 
selves against  the  man  who  came  not  with  flocks  and  lierds, 
but  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army,  Jarmuth,  Lachish,  and 
Eglon  lay  south-west  of  Jerusalem  and  west  of  Hebron ;  the 
first  of  them  on  the  western  margm  of  the  hill-country,  the 
last  two  on  the  rich  plain  below.  Jarmuth  is  identified  be- 
yond much  doubt  with  the  modern  village  of  Jarmu ;  Lachish 
and  Eglon,  with  Um  Lakis  and  Ajlan.  It  was  not  at  those 
places,  however,  that  the  kings  encountered  the  Israelites. 
They  united  their  forces  and  marched  up  to  Gibeon,  on  the 
high  land  north  of  Jerusalem,  the  modern  Geba,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  destroying  it.  The  people  sent  a  messenger  directly 
to  Joshua  at  Gilgal.  The  Israelitish  army  was  at  once  on  the 
move  up  the  rocky  defiles  which  lead  from  the  Valley  of  the 
Jordan  to  the  top  of  the  mountain-land  ;  their  first  duty  being 
to  defend  their  new  and  crafty  allies,  the  Gibeonites ;  their 
next,  to  go  forward  and  capture  the  countrj^  for  themselves. 
The  news  reached  Joshua  in  the  night,  and  before  it  was  day 
the  Israelitish  host  had  traversed  the  ravine,  and  were  before 
the  walls  of  Gibeon.  And  then  began  that  memorable  battle 
of  Beth-horon,  one  of  the  decisive  struggles  of  the  world. 
The  Israelites  pursued  their  enemy  northward  for  about  four 
miles,  over  a  tract  sufficiently  broken,  but  along  the  main 
coast-line  of  the  country.  At  Upper  Beth-horon,  its  place 
perfectly  marked  at  the  present  day  by  the  village  of  Upper 
Beit-ur,  the  Canaanites  turned  down  to  the  west  through  the 
broad  and  steep  pass  which  led  to  the  village  of  Lower  Beth- 
horon.    It  is  the  same  pass  which  is  taken  by  all  the  heavy 


ANCLENT   BATTEKINa   RAM. 


ANCIENT    AXES. 


ANCIENT   BATTLE-AXES,   POLE-AXE; 
MACES,  AND    CLUB. 


134 


BATTLE   OF   BETH-HORON. 


travel  between  Jaffa  and  Jerusalem.  The  lighter  travel  comes 
up  by  a  pass  west  of  Jerusalem,  and  more  direct ;  but  the  pass 
of  Beit-ur,  the  ancient  Beth-lioron,  is  one  of  the  most  striking 
features  of  the  country.  Mr.  Grove  says  graphically  of  it, 
"  With  the  upper  village  the  descent  commences ;  the  road, 
rough  and  difficult  even  for  the  mountain-paths  of  Palestine, 
now  over  sheets  of  smooth  rock  flat  as  the  flagstones  of  a 
London  pavement,  now  over  the  upturned  edges  of  the  lime- 
stone strata,  and  now  amongst  the  loose  rectangular  stones  so 
characteristic  of  the  whole  of  this  district.    There  are,  in  many 


TORTOISE  SHIELD. 


places,  steps  cut,  and  other  marks  of  the  path  having  been 
artificially  improved.".  Near  the  lower  end  of  the  path  is  the 
side-valley  passing  by  the  low  hill  on  which  stood  the  village 
of  Ajalon,  the  modern  Yalo,  and  whose  name  is  always  re- 
membered in  connection  with  Joshua's  prayer,  as  he  set  for- 
ward that  eventful  morning.  It  is  plain  that  the  Canaanites 
were  taken  by  surprise,  when,  in  the  cool  of  the  day,  they 
found  the  Hebrew  troops  upon  them.     There  was  a  continual 


THE   GREAT   MIEACLE.  135 

rout  all  the  way  from  Gibeou  to  Upper  Beth-horon ;  and,  to 
add  to  all,  just  as  the  Canaanites  were  taking  that  steep  and 
dangerous  pass  from  Upj)er  to  Lower  Beth-horon,  a  tremendous 
hailstorm  broke  upon  them,  effecting  more  slaughter  than  even 
the  arms  of  the  Israelites.  This  pitiless  storm  followed  them 
tni  they  reached  the  city  of  Azekah,  identified  by  Porter 
with  the  modern  village  of  Zechariah,  on  the  verge  of  the  high- 
lands south-west  of  Jerusalem.  It  would  appear  that  the  Is- 
raelites did  not  pass  on  at  once  to  Azekah,  but  in  the  early 
morning,  the  victory  being  complete,  left  the  hailstorm  on  the 
western  slope  of  the  hill-country  to  do  its  devastating  work, 
while  they  went  back  to  Gilgal.  But  soon  a  messenger  brought 
word  that  the  five  kings  had  taken  refuge  in  a  cave  at  Mak- 
kedah,  near  Azekah.  Up  from  Gilgal  on  the  same  day  the 
Israelites  marched,  reached  the  highlands  about  Gibeon,  and, 
swept  down  the  pass  of  Beth-horon  to  Makkedah.  The 
slaughter  of  the  kings,  their  burial  in  the  cave,  and  the  de- 
struction of  Makkedah,  closed  that  memorable  day.  It  does  not 
need  any  argument  to  convince  us  of  the  miraculous  answer  to 
Joshua's  prayer,  "  Sun,  stand  thou  still  upon  Gibeon,  and  thou, 
moon,  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon."  The  march  up 

from  Gilgal  to  Gibeon  was  effected  in  the  night,  it  is  true ; 
but  between  the  break  of  the  next  day  and  its  close,  Joshua 
marched  from  Gibeon  to  Upper  Beth-horon,  some  distance 
down  the  pass,  back  to  Gilgal,  up  from  Gilgal  to  Gibeon  again, 
and  down  the  whole  length  of  the  pass  to  Makkedah.  These 
things,  being  told  in  a  simple,  unaffected  manner,  would  seem 
to  shut  us  up  to  one  of  two  conclusions :  either  that  the  Isra- 
elites could  pass  over  rough  roads  and  through  narrow  defiles 
with  supernatural  speed,  not  to  speak  of  the  immense  draughts 
on  their  energy  and  strength,  or  that  the  day  was  of  no  com- 
mon length  that  could  permit  them  to  do  all  this.  The  dis- 
tance traversed  can  not  have  been  less  than  forty  miles,  not 
to  reckon  the  night  march.  The  nature  of  the  roads  is  such 
that  to  go  up  from.  Gilgal  to  Gibeon  and  back  in  a  single  day 
is  all  that  strong  travelers  can  accomplish.     The  whole  route 


136  THE  GREAT  CONFEDERATION. 

is  now,  and  mnst  have  been  then,  one  with  which  hardly  any 
mountain-path  that  any  of  us  are  familiar  with  can  be  com- 
pared. Twenty  miles  of  such  toilful  marching  through  the 
defiles  and  up  the  declivities  of  the  White  Hills  of  New 
Hampshire  would  task  the  powers  of  the  strongest  man  to 
the  utmost ;  yet  here  is  a  whole  army  doing  a  feat  of  twice 
that  magnitude.  I  am  aware  that  the  miraculous  prolonging 
of  the  day  of  that  battle  is  one  of  the  special  targets  of  those 
who  hold  the  supernatural  element  of  the  Bible  up  to  ridi- 
cule ;  but  I  confess  that  the  power  of  doing  all  that  Joshua 
and  his  men  did  that  day  without  supernatural  help  seems 
just  as  opposed  to  all  that  we  know  of  human  possibilities  as 
the  prolonging  of  the  day  can  have  been. 

There  remamed  after  the  battle  of  Beth-horon  but  one  more 
•task  for  Joshua  to  do,  and  that  was  to  conquer  the  North. 
The  people  of  the  North  seem  to  have  been  stronger,  and, 
on  the  whole,  capable  of  being  better  united  than  the  people 
of  the  South,  capable  of  entering  into  a  confederation.  The 
reason  of  this  lies  in  the  fact  that  Palestine  is  open  to  attack 
only  on  the  north. 

On  the  borders  of  the  waters  of  Merom,  or  at  a  point  south- 
west of  Merom  (we  know  not  precisely  where),  lay  a  city 
called  Hazor,  the  king  of  which  was  Jabin,  or  the  Wise. 
Jabin  appears  to  have  been  the' most  important  man  of  his  age 
and  of  that  part  of  the  country.  Hazor  may  have  been  the 
strongest  hold  of  all  the  cities  at  the  North,  but  not  necessa- 
rily ;  Jabin,  however,  appears  to  have  been  the  ablest  man  of 
his  time.  After  Joshua  had  conquered  the  South  country  it 
was  clear  that  he  would  push  his  victorious  columns  to  the 
North.  The  king  of  Hazor  made  a  league  with  all  the  kings 
in  the  entire  north  of  Palestine.  It  was  an  immense  confed- 
eracy that  he  called  together.  It  extended  south  as  far  as 
Jerusalem,  west  as  far  as  to  the  extreme  point  of  Mt.  Carmel 
and  the  city  of  Dor,  eastward  as  far  as  the  plains  of  the  shores 
of  the  Sea  of  Gahlee,  and  north  to  the  valley  lying  be- 
tween the  Lebanon  ^nd  Anti-Lebanon  mountains, — a  strong 


138  JOSHUA'S   SECOND    VICTORY. 

confederacy  of  disciplined  soldiers  under  able  leaders.  It 
seemed  as  if  that  conspiracy  must  certainly  crush  the  victori- 
ous Joshua.  It  was  far  stronger  in  every  sense  than  the  body 
that  had  met  him  at  the  South.  The  host  assembled  at  the 
waters  of  Merom,  where  a  new  kind  of  tactics  could  be  brought 
into  the  field.  The  Israelites  fought  on  foot.  The  different 
races  who  lived  in  the  country  on  the  north  and  the  plains  north 
were  able  to  use  chariots  and  horses.  We  can  hardly  con- 
ceive anything  more  unequal  than  the  contest  between  Joshua 
and  his  undisciplined  Israelites  on  the  one  hand,  and  that 
strong  and  disciplined  army  on  the  other  hand,  strengthened 
by  chariots  and  horses.  All  men  not  used  to  war  are  panic 
stricken  by  horses,  but  when  we  add  to  this  those  chariots 
which  were  armed  on  the  side  with  ii'on  scythes,  we  may  well 
understand  that  the  hearts  of  the  Israelites  were  appalled. 
But  Joshua  seems  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  using  the  tactics 
he  pursued  at  the  previous  battle,  he  came  suddenly  upon  them 
at  the  waters  of  Merom,  and  appears  to  have  swept  them  all 
from  the  field. 

The  story  of  that  battle  is  not  told  in  detail  as  is  the  battle 
of  Beth-horon.  It  appears  to  have  been  done  at  a  single 
stroke ;  one  great  charge,  and  the  whole  was  over,  and  the 
entire  north  country  passed  into  the  hands  of  Joshua.  And 
thus  by  these  two  simple  battles,  the  story  of  which  is  told 
so  simply  in  the  Bible,  the  whole  conquest  was  obtained.  We 
are  apt  to  think  that  the  book  of  Joshua,  unless  we  read  it 
more  than  most  people  do,  is  a  stor}'-  of  continuous  victories. 
It  is  not  so.  There  are  but  two.  There  was  a  great  battle 
and  victory  at  the  South,  which  gave  them  possession  of  the 
whole  south  country,  and  one  at  the  North  giving  them  pos- 
session of  the  country  north  of  Galilee  and  the  plains.  We 
who  were  a  few  years  since  so  astonished  at  the  seven  days' 
campaign  which  made  Prussia  master  of  Austria,  have  reason 
to  be  still  more  surprised  at  this  series  of  events  in  the  very 
morning  of  the  world,  so  quickly  achieved,  and  with  such 
simple  means. 


CHAPTER  Vm. 

ALLOTMENT  AMONG  THE  TWELVE  TRIBES. 

TvlU  Description  of  tlie  Allotment  in  the  Bible — Retention  of  the  Ancient  Names 
in  the  Mouth  of  the  Arabs — Robinson  and  Smith's  Discoveries — The  Three 
Tribes  East  of  the  Jordan,  Reuben,  Gad,  and  Half-Manasseh — The  Beautiful 
Land  of  Bashan — The  Inequalities  in  Western  Palestine  in  Respect  to  Soil — 
A  Wonderful  System  of  Compensations — Only  One  Tribe  Fares  Badly — Ter- 
ritory of  Judali — Its  Advantages — Benjamin — Its  Sacred  Localities — Dan 
— Its  Narrowness  and  Subsequent  Emigration — Ephraim — Manasseh,  Issa- 
char,  and  Zebulon — The  Cities  of  Refuge — Moses'  Knowledge  of  the  Land — 
Site  of  Shiloh  and  its  Discovery  by  Robinson. 

jHE  first  important  event  after  the  completion  of  the 
conquest  was  the  division  of  the  country  among 
the  twelve  tribes.  Respecting  this  apportionment, 
the  Scripture  narrative  is  remarkably  full  and  explicit;  it 
would  be  the  hight  of  injustice  to  criticise  it,  for  there  is  not 
another  existing  record  of  conquest  so  remarkably  detailed  as 
is  this  ancient  book  which  records  the  bold  and  dashing 
achievements  of  Joshua.  And  so  wonderful  is  the  preserva- 
tion in*the  mouth  of  the  wandering  Arabs  who  inhabit  Pales- 
tine, of  the  primitive  Hebrew  names,  that  it  would  be  quite 
practicable,  there  is  httle  reason  to  doubt,  to  work  out  quite 
definitely  the  limits  of  each  tribe,  had  travelers'  attention 
been  sufficiently  directed  to  this  thing.  In  the  South,  this 
has  indeed  been  the  case,  and  two  Americans,  Robinson  and 
Smith,  have  discovered  so  many  of  the  old  names  still  clinging 
to  the  villages  of  the  land  that  it  has  been  possible  to  desig- 
nate with  much  definiteness  the  boundaries  of  the  tribes  of 
Judah,  Benjamin  and  Dan.  But  almost  no  travelers  have 
carefully  explored  the  hill-country  of  Gahlee,  the  territory  of 


140  NEED   OF   INVESTIGATION". 

which  was  divided  among  the  tribes  of  Asher,  Naphtali  and 
Zebulun,  and  we  can  map  them  only  approximately.  It  is 
very  much  to  be  desired  that  some  acute  observer  and  some 
careful  and  thorough  Arabic  scholar  might  go  through  that 
region  as  Robinson  and  Smith  went  through  the  district  held 
by  the  more  southern  tribes,  and  endeavor  to  disinter -the 
names  which  are  given  with  such  remarkable  detail  by  the 
author  of  the  book  of  Joshua,  and  which  almost  unquestiona- 
])ly  lie  buried  but  lightly  beneath  the  Arabic  names  of  towns 
and  villages  of  the  north  country.  But  until  that  is  done, 
we  shall  have  to  confess  that  our  knowledge  about  the  exact 
boundaries  of  the  northern  and  middle  and  eastern  tribes  is 
not  very  exact :  still  we  have  enough  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses. We  can  distinguish,  for  example,  what  was  the  soil, 
and  what  the  natural  resources  in  the  possession  of  each  tribe : 
and  we  know  the  great,  salient  features  of  the  landscape  en- 
joyed by  each.  It  is  only  to  gratify  an  antiquarian  curiosity 
that  we  need  to  know  more :  yet  that  curiosity  is  strong 
enough  and  the  need  of  an  exact  map  of  the  country  parti- 
tioned among  the  tribes,  great  enough  to  warrant  a  party  of 
scholars  going  into  that  field  with  a  determination  to  exhaust 
it.  It  would  seem  at  least  as  important  as  the  search  for  the 
North  Pole,  the  Antarctic  Continent  or  the  sources  of  the  Nile. 
Three  of  the  tribes,  Reuben,  Gad  and  Half-Manasseh,  had 
their  domain  assigned  to  them  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Jor- 
dan. They  were  very  rich  in  flocks  and  herds,  and  had  no 
sooner  seen  that  country  in  their  journey  towards  the  prom- 
ised land,  than  they  longed  to  possess  it.  Their  desire  was 
met  on  one  condition,  namely  that  their  men  of  war  should 
cross  the  river  with  the  other  tribes,  and  do  good  military  ser- 
vice there  in  the  work  of  conquering  the  country,  and  that 
after  that  should  be  ended,  they  might  return  and  settle  down 
on  that  fat  and  fruitful  domain.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
the  former  condition  of  the  tract  east  of  the  Jordan  was 
then  very  much  as  it  is  at  the  present  time,  a  rich,  well- 
watered  pasture-land,  admirably  adapted  to  grazing,  covered 


TERRITORY   OF   REUBEN.  141 

with  broad-reaching,  noble  trees,  and  altogether  delightful. 
Though  it  is  much  too  insecure  at  the  present  time  for  safety, 
and  has  in  consequence  been  very  httle  visited,  still  the  few 
travelers  who  have  explored  the  district  of  ancient  Moab,  and 
the  country  north  of  it,  have  uniformly  testified  to  its  great 
and  luxuriant  beauty.  Its  stately  oaks,  its  numerous  rivers 
and  springs,  its  fine  reaches  of  rich  pasture-land,  its  fertile 
hill-sides,  and  its  broad,  loamy  plains,  are  the  admiration  of 
every  beholder.  It  was  this  beautiful  country  which  fell  to 
Reuben,  Gad  and  Half-Manasseh.  I  will  not  try  to  define 
their  exact  limits,  although  the  boundaries  are  much  more 
easily  followed  than  those  of  the  tribes  of  Galilee.  Any 
one  can  if  he  wishes,  look  out  all  the  stations,  and  lo- 
cate them  on  the  map.  But  it  is  sufficient  for  our  pres- 
ent purpose  to  say  that  Reuben's  tract  was  bounded  on 
the  south  by  the  river  Arnon,  a  well-known  stream  which 
enters  the  Dead  Sea  about  midway  between  its  northern 
and  southern  extremes,  and  on  the  north  by  a  line  running 
eastward  from  the  northern  end  of  the  Dead  Sea,  then  turn- 
ing north-eastward,  and  passing  indefinitely  on  until  it  was 
lost  in  the  desert.  The  wady,  running  westward  from  Hesh- 
bon  down  to  the  valley  of  the  Jordan,  which  was  traversed  by 
the  Israelites  on  theh  march  into  Western  Palestine,  accu- 
rately enough  defines  the  northern  frontier  of  the  territory  of 
Reuben.  The  tribe  although  descending  from  the  oldest  son, 
was  in  no  way  remarkable,  and  was  chiefly  noted,  for  its 
bucolic,  tranquil  disposition.  Out  of  Reuben  sprang  not  a 
single  man  who  reached  any  eminence  in  Israel.  The  people 
of  this  tribe  hved  in  tents,  and  pursued  strictly  the  employ-' 
ments  of  an  agricultural  folk  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  their  graz- 
ing lands  they  permitted  the  cities  to  stand  and  be  occupied 
by  the  former  inhabitants,  who  were  clearly  on  a  higher  plain 
of  civilization  than  themselves.  There  is  little  allusion  to  the 
fate  of  Reuben  after  the  close  of  the  story  of  the  conquest, 
and  they  had  returned  to  their  wives  and  little  ones,  their 
tents  and  sheep-folds  on  the  east  side  of  the  Jordan. 


142 


TERRITORY   OF   GAD    AND    SIIMEON. 


Gad,  a  much  more  robust  and  lawless  tribe,  occupied  the 
territory  directly  north  of  Reuben.  Their  southern  boundary 
was  in  general  terms  a  line  drawn  eastward  from  the  north 
extremity  of  the  Dead  Sea,  and  their  northern  was  at  the  first 
the  torrent  stream  of  the  Jabbok  ;  but  at  a  subsequent  period, 
the  wild,  irrepressible  nature  of  the  Gadites  caused  them  to 
make  a  bold  push  northward,  and  win  the  territory  extending 
up  to  the  border  of  the  great  Hauran  plain.    North  of  Gad  was 


BEERSHEBA. 
From  an  original  sketch  in  Tristram's  valuable  work,  "  The  Land  of  IsraeL" 

Half-Manasseh,  a  large  and  fruitful  tract,  embracing  the  fer* 
tile  and  well-wooded  Bashan,  and  the  densely  populated  Ar- 
gob  with  its  walled  cities.  The  natural  northern  limit  of  East- 
ern Manasseh  was  the  snow-crowned  Hermon,  which  sets  in  its 
majesty  and  forms  the  north  boundary  of  the  whole  country. 
These  three  tribes  having  received  their  possessions  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Jordan,  there  remained  all  the  more  to  be  pos- 
sessed by  the  other  tribes  on  the  western.     And  considering 


TERRITOKY   OF   JUDAH.  143 

the  great  inequalities  of  the  country,  it  is  wonderful  how  well 
Joshua  succeeded  in  apportioning  the  land  so  as  to  satisfy  in 
any  measure  the  various  conflicting  and  eager  claims  of  the 
tribes.  The  northern  part  of  Palestine  must  have  been  always 
more  fertile  and  beautiful  than  the  southern :  and  yet  so  ad- 
mirably did  he  preserve  the  balance  as  to  cause  no  complaint  to 
be  heard.  When  there  was  a  deficiency  of  fertile  land,  there 
were  solid  and  manifest  advantages  adjomed  to  compensate : 
and  with  the  single  exception  of  Simeon,  it  is  difficult  to  see 
that  any  tribe  fared  hardly.  The  latter  tribe  was  passed  over 
in  the  first  apportionment ;  but  as  Judali  had  more  cities  than 
were  necessary  for  one  tribe  to  possess,  there  were  taken  from 
the  southern  part  of  Judah  eighteen  cities,  with  their  adjacent 
suburbs,  and  these  were  made  the  part  of  Simeon.  These 
were  in  two  groups,  one  of  thirteen  cities,  and  the  other  of 
five,  and  were  none  of  them  important.  Beersheba  is  the 
one  most  generally  known,  but  aside  from  the  connection  be- 
tween this  place  and  the  patriarchs,  it  has  no  prominence  in 
history,  and  has  never  possessed  any  marked  advantages.  The 
most  of  the  cities  which  fell  to  Simeon  lay  south  of  Hebron. 
They  were  in  all  probability  not  contiguous,  at  any  rate  not 
necessarily  so :  and  this  gave  Simeon  a  peculiarity  not  enviable, 
namely  that  it  had  no  compacted  territory  which  it  could  de- 
fend, and  in  which  it  could  develop  a  strong  tribal  feehng. 
The  consequence  was  that  very  early  Simeon  began  to  lose  its 
importance,  and  to  drop  out  of  sight,  and  not  very  late  in  the 
Hebrew  history  disappears  altogether,  having  left  its  cities 
and  emigrating  southward  to  .the  mountains  of  Edom.  Its 
descendants  probably  exist  among  the  wild  and  fierce  Arabs 
who  now  inhabit  that  rocky  and  almost  inaccessible  tract 
around  Petra. 

Judah  occupied,  in  general  terms,  the  tract  lying  between 
the  city  of  Hebron  at  the  south,  and  a  line  drawn  westward 
from  the  northern  end  of  the  Dead  Sea,  and'  passing  under 
the  south  wall  of  Jerusalem.  Thus  this  great  city  did  not  fall 
Mdthin  its  limits,  but  was  in  the  domain  of  Benjamin,  the  tribe 


144  TERRITORY   OF   JUDAH. 

next  north.  The  territory  of  Judah,  though  extensive,  can 
never  have  rivalled  in  fertility  the  more  favored  regions  of  the 
North,  although  unqucstioual)ly  far  more  productive  than  at 
the  present  time.  Still  the  district  embraced  not  the  hill-coun- 
try alone,  which  though  capable  of  tillage,  yet  required  an 
incredible  amount  of  labor  and  perseverance  to  make  it  re- 
munerative, but  that  rich  plain  at  the  foot  of  its  western  slope, 
in  which  lay  the  cities  which  Joshua  conquered,  and  whose 
kings  he  slew  in  his  first  brief  and  decisive  campaign;  But 
Judah  was  well  adapted  to  train  up  and  keep  in  constant  good 
condition  a  tribe  which  should  be  dominant.  Its  soil,  not  fer- 
tile enough  to  tempt  to  sluggishness,  its  climate,  bracing  and 
stimulative,  its  situation,  remote  from  nations  whose  arts  should 
be  imported  and  bring  all  kinds  of  seductive  influences  with 
them,  and  its  naturally  strong  position  as  a  strategic  point  of 
defence,  all  conspired  to  make  it  a  leading  tribe,  and  to  justify 
the  old  projihecy  that  the  sceptre  should  not '  pass  from  it  till 
the  Promised  should  come. 

North  of  Judah  lay  Benjamin.  It  was  a  little  tract  which 
this  tribe  possessed,  only  about  twelve  miles  from  north  to 
south,  and  twenty-five  from  east  to  west.  It  was  moreover 
singularly  barren  and  destitute  of  physical  advantages,  a 
mere  tangle  of  rocky  passes  leading  from  the  hill-country 
eastward  down  to  the  Jordan,  and  westward  to  the  Plain  of 
Sharon.  It  was  just  such  a  tract  as  would  serve  as  the  home 
of  a  wild  tribe,  given  to  acts  of  violence,  as  the  tribe  of 
Benjamin  was.  If  we  have  any  notion  that  these  people, 
because  Israelites,  were  at  all*  akin  to  the  j)eople  of  Em-ope 
or  America,  in  the  arts  and  refinements  of  civilized  life,  it 
were  well  to  dismiss  the  idea  at  once.  They  were  very  like 
what  the  savage  Arabs  east  of  the  Jordan  now  are,  fierce, 
warhke,  and  vindictive.  These  were  a  roving,  lawless,  undis- 
ciplined horde,  the  fear  and  the  scourge  of  the  comitry,  and 
utterly  unlike  the  gentle  Sheikh  who  was  their  founder.  Yet 
lying,  as  their  domain  did,  just  at  the  most  defenceless  part 
of  the  south,  and  exposed,  as  it  was,  to  invasion  on  the  east, 


TERRITORY   OF    BENJAMIN.  145 

up  the  great  wadies  leading  from  the  Jericho  to  the  top  of 
tlie  hill-country,  it  was  indispensable  to  the  perpetuation 
of  the  Hebrew  domination,  that  just  such  a  tribe  should 
stand  on  guard  at  the  portal,  and  be  a  barrier  against  wild 
invaders.  One  signal  advantage  was  enjoyed  by  Benjamin, 
namely,  that  within  its  comparatively  contracted  domain  lay 
some  of  the  most  sacred  and  important  places  in  all  the  con- 
quered land.  Of  these,  Jerusalem  was,  of  course,  the  most 
conspicuous,  yet  to  that  great  name  must  be  added  MizjDeh, 
Bethel,  Kirjath-jearun,  Ramah,  Gibeon,  Gibeah,  and  Gilgal. 
This  was  an  offset  to  the  barrenness  and  diminutiveness  of 
its  territory,  and  we  do  not  hear  that  the  Benjamites  ever 
complained  of  being  hardly  dealt  with  in  the  distribution 
of  the  conquered  domain.  They  appear  to  have  enjoyed  the 
military  honors  which  their  position  thrust  upon  them,  and  to- 
have  confined  their  ambition  to  the  gallant  service  of  resisting 
attacks,  and  being  always  ready  for  war. 

In  a  little  corner  of  Palestine  west  of  Benjamin,  and 
hemmed  in  between  it  and  the  sea,  lay  the  territory  which  was 
originally  assigned  to  Dan,  The  comparative  meagreness  of 
Dan's  domain  was  compensated  by  its  remarkable  fertility,  for 
it  embraced  Gaesarea  and  that  wonderfully  fruitful  plain  of 
Sharon  whose  productivity  has  become  a  proverb  understood 
throughout  the  world.  Yet  the  domain  of  Dan  early  proved 
to  be  too  small  for  that  large  and  energetic  tribe,  and  they  were 
empowered  by  Joshua  to  go  to  the  extreme  northern  limits  of 
Palestine  proper  and  win  for  themselves  a  tract  just  where  the 
western  fountain  springs  of  the  Jordan  burst  from  the  sand. 
The  place  is  known  as  Tell  el  Kadi,  or  the  Hill  of  Judgment, 
and  is  visited  with  much  interest  by  tourists.  It  is  but  a  few 
miles  west  of  Baneas,  or  Csesarea  Philippi,  the  eastern  springs 
of  the  Jordan,  and  like  the  latter  is  remarkable  for  the  sud- 
denness with  which  the  waters  which  are  soon  to  make  a  not- 
able river,  break  and  leap  from  the  ground.  Here  the  part  of 
Dan  that  emigrated  from  the  south  took  firm  root,  and  gained 
fresh  accessions  of  population  and  power,  while  that  part  of 


1-16  TERRITORY   OF   DAN    AND    EPHRAIM. 

the  tribe  which  remained  in  the  tract  originally  assigned  them, 
became  weaker  and  weaker.  The  place  was,  in  fact,  very 
much  exposed;  for  close  beside  them,  on  a  continuation  of  the 
same  plain  indeed,  dwelt  the  powerful  Philistines,  with  whom 
the  Hebrew  nation  was  engaged  in  interminable  war.  Thus 
Dan,  dwelling  not  in  the  safe  hill-country,  but  on  tlie  exposed 
plain,  were  constantly  at  the  mercy  of  their  comparatively  civ- 
ilized neighbors  on  the  south,  and  enjoyed  very  few  of  the  ad- 
vantages which  their  almost  incomparable  soil  would  have 
granted  them,  could  they  have  preserved  a  steady,  peaceful, 
agricultural  career. 

North-east  of  Dan  was  the  tract  assigned  to  the  great  and 
kingly  tribe  of  Ephraim.     In  that  territory  Avhich  embraced 
the  whole  width  of  West  Palestine,  there  is  the  transition  be- 
tween the  extreme  fertility  of  the  North  and   the  extreme 
barrenness  of  the  South.     A  part  of  that  could  be,  perhaps, 
discernible  at  the  time  of  the  conquest ;  and  in  the  domain  of 
Ephraim  lay  some  of  the  loveliest  spots  in,  all  the  land,  while, 
nevertheless,  there  was  much  land  in  its  southern  part  which 
was  hardly  superior  to  Judah  or  Benjamin's.     In  Ephraim 's 
demesne  lay  the  sanctuary  of  Shiloh :  and  in  it,  too,  was  the 
rich  plain  of  Moreh  or  Shechem,  which  was  a  notable  feature 
in  the  landscape  from  Abraham  down  to  the  Saviour,  and  is 
still  one  of  the  fairest  tracts  in  the  Holy  Land.     It  is  impossi- 
ble to  draw  the  boundary  line  which  separated  Ephraim  from 
West  Manasseh :  the  domain  which  the  two  tribes  occupied  is 
really  mcapable  of  being  divided  into  two  different  parts,  for 
it  is  a  unit.     Still  it  is  easy  to  make  this  distinction  that  while 
Ephraim  occupied  the  larger  part  of  the  block  lying  between 
the  rocky  passes  of  Benjamin  and  the  fertile,  plam  of  Jezreel 
or  Esdraelon,  Manasseh's  share  comprised  the  gentle  slopes, 
and  the  genial  valleys  which  lead  from  Ebal  and  Gerizim  and 
the  adjacent  mountain  land,  northward,  and  from  the  natural 
roadways  into  the  beautiful  plain  just  mentioned.     There  is 
little  doubt  that  the  northern  slopes  of  Carrael  were  in  the 
possession  of  Manasseh :  still  the  two  tribes  appear  to  have 


Illi.!   #:.      ■'■'1 


11 


mm 


m 


MANASSEH,  ISSACHAR   AND   ZEBULUN.  149 

had  a  divided  possession  of  the  Carmel  ridge  which  was  then 
doubtless,  covered  with  a  heavy  growth  of  wood.  That  there 
was  a  clear  intermingling  of  the  territory  of  the  two  sons  of 
Joseph  is  clear  from  the  statement  in  Josh,  xvii.,  where  it  is 
not  only  stated  that  the  "  cities  of  Ephraim  are  among  the 
cities  of  Manasseh,"  but  where  it  is  equally  clearly  intimated 
that  but  one  lot,  or  one  portion  was  given  to  the  descendants 
of  Joseph,  and  that  the  task  was  imposed  on  them  both  by 
Joshua,  if  they  wished  to  increase  their  domains,  to  go  up  into 
the  Carmel  range  and  conquer  it  for  themselves.  Of  East 
Manasseh  I  have  already  spoken  ;  to  it  fell  the  fertile  tract  in 
the  northern  part  of  Palestine — beyond  Jordan,  the  fertile 
Bashan,  the  populous  Argob  and  the  great  Hauran  plain. 

Of  the  other  tribes,  there  need  not  much  be  said,  for  of  their 
special  limits  we  know  but  little.  To  Issachar  fell,  we  may 
say  in  a  word,  the  extremely  fertile  plain  of  Jezreel  or  Esdra- 
elon,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  cities  upon  it  which  were 
given  to  Manasseh.  To  Zebulun  was  assigned  the  tract  im- 
mediately north,  embracing  Nazareth  and  Cana,  and  compris- 
ing the  fertile  hills  of  southern  Galilee.  It  stretched  across 
the  western  part  of  the  great  plain  of  Jezreel,  and  touched  the 
Carmel  range  for  some  miles.  Its  northern  frontier  is  quite 
unknown :  its  neighbors  on  this  side  were  Naphtali  and  Asher, 
whose  domains  extended  to  the  very  foot  of  Hermon  at  the 
north,  and  to  the  great  Phoenician  cities  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  on 
the  north-west.  These  two  tribes  had  a  magnificent  domain, 
beautifully  uneven,  fertile,  well-watered  and  salubrious,  but 
their  nearness  to  their  luxurious  and  craven  neighbors  on  the 
coast,  made  them  both,  and  Asher  especially,  neglectful  of 
their  religion,  inclined  to  adopt  foreign  idolatries,  effemiliate 
and  corrupt.  They  very  early  lost  the  fine,  high  tone  of  their 
character,  and  sank  into  mere  servile  dependents  on  the  Phoe- 
nicians. 

One  of  the  most  marked  geographical  landmarks  in  the  re- 
gion given  to  the  three  tribes,  Issachar,  Zebulun  and  Naphtali 
is  Mt.  Tabor,  which  touched  on  them  all,  forming  apparently 


150  MOUNT   TABOR   AS   A   LANDIMARK. 

the  northern  boundary  of  Issachur,  the  south-western  hmit  of 
Naphtah,  and  the  south-eastern  hmit  of  Zebukui.  The  most 
of  the  towns  and  other  landmarks  which  are  given  us  are  quite 
unknown,  and  it  is  in  vain  that  we  attempt  to  decipher  the 
special  boundaries  of  the  northern  tribes.  Further  mvestiga- 
tion  would  no  doubt  bring  much  information  to  light,  and  dis- 
cover in  the  present  names  of  villages  the  bibhcal  appellations 
of  cities.  Until  that  is  gained  we  must  wait :  yet  there  is 
hardly  a  single  unportant  spot  in  all  the  land  which  we  can 
not  with  certamty  ascribe  to  the  tribe  that  possessed  it.  In 
the  fertile  and  beautiful  domain  of  Naphtali,  that  charming 
country  of  hills  and  plains  lying  west  of  the  Waters  of  Merom 
and  the  northern  portion  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  lay  Capernaum, 
the  secluded  spot  which  of  all,  may  be  called  the  home  of 
Jesus,  Choraszin,  Tiberias  and  Safed,  the  lofty  "  city  set 
on  a  liill "  to  which  Jesus  pointed  when  he  taught  how  con- 
spicuous the  true  Christian  life  ought  to  be  among  bad  men : 
in  Naj)htali  too  was  the  profuse  "spring  which  supplied  Banias 
or  Cesarea  Philippi  with  water  and  made  it  the  garden  tract 
that  it  has  always  been.  Magdala,  too,  was  then  there,  wait- 
ing to  give  its  name  to  Mary  Magdalene,  and  there  too,  over- 
hanging the  Waters  of  Merom  was  that  renowned  city  of 
Hazor,  whose  King  Jabin  was  the  most  powerful  ruler  in  the 
whole  land  at  the  time  of  the  Hebrew  invasion, — the  leader 
of  the  great  northern  confederacy  which  endeavored  to  strike 
down  the  gallant  Joshua  at  a  single  blow. 

There  remains  but  one  tribe  more  to  be  alluded  to :  that 
of  Levi,  wliich  had  no  united  territory  assigned  to  it :  merely 
forty-eight  cities,  in  which  the  Levites  were  to  hve.  To  these 
cities  which  in  round  numbers  were  four  to  each  tribe,  were 
added  a  ring  of  land  aroiuid  each  city,  extending  about  four 
thousand  feet  from  the  wall,  and  intended  to  serve  as  pasture 
ground  to  the  cattle.  All  provisions  were  taken  to  prevent 
this  tril^e  from  taking  up  the  pursuits  of  agriculture,  and  also 
to  scatter  the  people  of  it  up  and  down  the  whole  country, 
so  that  men  should  be  always  close  at  hand  to  discharge  the 


CITIES   OF   KEFUGE.  151 

duties  of  sacrifice.  Six  of  the  forty-eight  cities  which  were 
given  to  the  Levites,  had  a  double  function :  for  they  were 
also  set  apart  to  be  Cities  of  Refuge,  ^'.  e.  places  to  which  per- 
sons who  had  been  instrvnnental  in  causing  the  accidental  death 
of  a  man,  might  fly  and  be  secure  from  arrest.  This  w^as  one 
of  the  most  merciful  provisions  in  the  Hebrew  code,  and  the 
choice  of  the  six  cities  was  admirably  adapted  to  the  ends  in 
view.  Three  were  on  the  east,  and  three  were  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Jordan.  On  the  east,  one  Bezer  (its  site  now  un- 
known) was  m  the  tribe  of  Reuben :  another  farther  north, 
Ramoth-Gilead,  now  Jelad,  the  second  name  slightly  changed, 
lies  a  little  north  of  es  Salt,  in  the  mountain  district  of  Gad : 
another  still,  Golan,  its  site  like  that  of  Bezer,  now  unknown, 
lay  within  the  wild  and  romantic  country  of  East  Manasseh. 
West  of  the  Jordan  were  three  others,  the  well-knoAvn  He- 
bron in  the  South,  Shechem,  scarcely  less  known,  under  the 
shadow  of  Ebal  and  Gerizim,  in  the  great  central  tribe  of 
Ephraim,  and  Kedesh,  now  Kades,  in  the  hill-country  at  the 
North,  a  short  distance  west  of  Lake  Huleh^  the  Waters  of 
Merom.  AU  of  these  must  have  been  prominent  and  accessi- 
ble cities,  easily  protected  in  case  of  a  siege,  and  affording  per- 
fect security  to  those  who  fled  to  them  that  their  sanctity  was 
incapable  of  being  invaded. 

The  most  striking  incident  connected  with  the  division  of 
the  land  among  the  tribes,  was  the  removal  of  the  tabernacle 
from  Gilgal  down  by  the  Jordan,  up  into  the  heart  of  the 
hill-country  of  Ephraim.  Notwithstanding  the  general  sur- 
vey of  the  country  by  the  forty  who  were  sent  by  Moses  up 
from  the  Wilderness  of  Wandering,  the  land  was  not  fully 
known,  in  regard  to  its  general  extent,  the  number  of  its 
cities,  and  its  minute  geographical  features.  Moses  had  com- 
passed it  in  that  grand,  comprehensive  mind  of  his,  and  had 
been  able  to  lay  down  its  larger  characteristics  and  to  de- 
pict its  general  outline,  with  remarkable  fidelity :  but  for  the 
special  work  of  subdividing  the  country,  and  apportioning  it 
among  the  tribes,  a  much  more  intimate  knowledge  of  Pales- 


152  SITE   OF   SHILOH. 

tine  was  needed  than  either  Moses  or  Joshua,  or  even  Caleb, 
had  been  able  to  gain.  The  first  result  of  this  had  been  that 
in  the  allotment  of  the  district  first  conquered,  that  south  of 
the  plain  of  Jezreel,  and  bordered  on  the  north  by  the  Carmel 
range,  much  more  land  had  been  given  to  the  tribes  of  Judah 
and  Ephraim  than  the  limits  of  the  whole  country  wan-anted. 
And  this  could  not  be  remedied,  for  the  division  by  lot  was 
irrevocable ;  all  that  remained  was  to  carefully  survey  the  re- 
maining district,  and  apportion  it  as  justly  as  possible  to  the 
seven  tribes  tliat  remained.  Judah  and  the  house  of  Joseph, 
and  the  two  and  a  half  tribes  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  river 
remained  intact,  so  far  as  any  encroachment  on  the  general 
tract  given  to  them  was  concerned,  and  the  remainder  was 
distributed  among  the  remaining  seven  tribes  with  as  much 
justness  as  possible.  And  such  was  the  fertility  of  the  north 
country  as  compared  with  the  south,  that  smaller  limits  than 
Judah  and  Ephraim  possessed  were  quite  reconcilable  with 
equivalent  value. 

It  was  after  this  mistake,  so  to  call  it,  of  underestimating 
the  whole  extent  of  Palestine,  that  the  tabernacle  was  re- 
moved from  Gilgal  to  Shiloh,  and  the  continuation  of  the 
allotment  continued.  Hardly  any  place  in  the  whole  land 
was  more  suitable  for  a  new  resting-place  for  the  ark.  It  was 
not  so  eminently  striking  in  its  fitness,  but  it  was. eminently 
retired,  so  much  so,  indeed,  that  during  all  these  past  ages, 
when  we  have  known  where  Bethlehem,  and  Nazareth,  and 
Shechem,  and  Hebron,  and  some  other  famous  localities  lay,  we 
have  not  been  able  to  define  the  spot  so  familiar  all  through 
the  Scriptures  as  Shiloh.  And  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  sacred  historians  took  special  pains  to  tell  us  where  it  was. 
In  the  last  chapter  of  the  book  of  Judges  we  have  words  as 
explicit  as  these:  "Shiloh,  which  is  on  the  north  side  of 
Bethel,  on  the  east  side  of  the  highway  that  goeth  up  from 
Bethel  to  Shechem,  and  on  the  south  of  Lebonah."  It  would 
hardly  seem  possible,  that  after  so  complete  a  description  as 
that,  it  would  be  necessary  to  wait  till  the  year  of  our  Lord, 


iiililiiiiilliiiiiili;iii!':iiiil;:;i:!lil 


tf'^^uif!#" 


154  ITS   DISCOVERY   BY   ROBINSON. 

1838,  before  an  American  professor,  Dr.  Edward  Robinson  by 
name,  should  turn  out  of  his  way,  on  his  general  journey 
northward  through  the  country,  and  discover  the  site  of  the* 
ancient  religious  head-quarters  of  the  Jewish  nation.  And 
yet  this  was  the  case.  Robinson  found  the  ancient  name, 
merely  changed  into  Seilun,  still  clinging  around  the  hill  on 
which  the  ruins  of  Shiloh  remain  to  the  present  day.  .  Near 
this  hill  was  the  well  around  .which  the  daughters  of  Shiloh 
danced  when  they  were  borne  away  in  triumph  by  the  Ben- 
jamites,  as  recorded  in  the  closing  chapter  of  Judges,  and 
around  on  almost  every  side  are  the  hills,  a  little  higher  than 
the  central  one  on  which  the  tabernacle  once  stood,  and  giv- 
ing to  the  place  its  seclusion.  It  is  almost  a  natural  amphi- 
theatre, and  was  admirably  adapted  to  its  purpose,  since  it  lay 
almost  contiguous  to  the  great  road  which  has  always  run  up 
and  down  the  hill  ridge  of  Palestine,  and  yet  sufficiently 
remote  from  it,  to  have  defied  observation  down  to  the  very 
time  in  which  we  live. 

The  slight  episode  connected  with  Caleb's  inheritance  re- 
quires a  mere  casual  reference  in  this  work,  since  all  the  world 
knows  where  Hebron  was,  and  how  rich  even  to  the  present 
day  are  the  valleys  which  lie  hard  by  the  famous  old  city. 
Caleb  showed  good  taste  in  his  selection,  for  he  could  hardly 
hit  upon  any  limited  tract,  one  which  should  be  better  adapted 
to  the  wants  of  a  single  family  than  was  Hebron  and  the 
.district  adjacent.  It  was  there  that  that  vale  of  Eshcol  lay, 
whose  grapes  are  as  large  and  bountiful  even  at  the  present 
day :  and  such  are  the  natural  advantages  of  the  soil,  that  even 
now,  amid  all  the  evils  which  are  mcident  to  a  miserable  gov- 
ernment, while  neglect  is  the  ruler,  and  the  old  and  well-nigh 
perfect  agriculture  of  an  ancient  day  has  left  but  scanty  me- 
morials of  what  it  was,  the  reason  of  Caleb's  choice  can  be 
seen  in  the  quality  of  the  wheat  and  maize  and  millet,  as  well 
as  of  the  grapes,  which  are  raised  in  Hebron  and  its  neighbor- 
hood. 

Besides,  there  was  evidently  a  touch  of  romantic  adventure 


OLD    CALEB  S   ADVENTUROUS    SPIRIT.  155 

in  the  mind  of  old  Caleb.  He  had  outlived  the  years  but  not 
the  spirit  of  his  youth.  He  was  eighty-five,  yet  he  says  in 
his  forcible  and  simple  way,  "  I  am  as  strong  this  day,  as  I  was 
in  the  day  that  Moses  sent  me :  as  my  strength  was  then,  even 
so  is  my  strength  now,  for  war.  Now,  therefore,  give  me  this 
mountain,  whereof  the  Lord  spoke  in  that  day ;  for  thou 
heardest  in  that  day  how  the  Anakims  were  there,  and  that 
the  cities  were  great  and  fenced,"  The  same  cause  which 
made  Caleb  court  this  possession  had  drawn  thither,  long  be- 
fore his  day,  those  tall  and  powerful  men,  the  primitive  tribes 
of  giants,  those  men  whose  residence  there,  as  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Jordan,  antedated  the  possession  by  most  of  the 
tribes,  whose  names  come  into  view  so  frequently  in  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures.  The  tract  around  Hebron  was  so  fer- 
tile that  that  city  is  expressly  declared  in  the  Bible  to  be  one 
of  the  most  ancient  places  in  the  world :  and  the  same  cause 
made  the  Hittites  hold  it  at  the  time  of  Abraham ;  and  subse- 
quently out  of  the  same  reason  the  Anakim  or  giants  gained 
possession  of  it ;  Caleb  sought  it  too  for  its  fruitfulness  and 
its  interesting  connection  with  the  grapes  of  Eshcol ;  and 
ultimately  Kmg  David  himself  chose  it  for  the  capital  of  his 
ikingdom  and  reigned  there  for  seven  years,  induced  partly 
no  doubt,  by  the  fact  that  there  lay  the  bones  of  his  ances- 
tors, Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  but  also,  it  is  probable,  by 
reason  of  the  same  fertility  that  won  the  eye  of  its  former 
possessors. 

Near  Hebron,  a  few  miles  towards  the  south-west,  lay  the 
city  of  Debn,  which  Caleb  wished  to  add  to  his  own  city  of 
Hebron,  or  Kirjath-arba,  as  it  had  been  called  b-efore.  The 
site  of  Debir  was  pointed  out  during  the  middle  ages  by  Felix 
Fabri,  an  Italian  traveler,  who  did  not  visit  it  personally,  but 
found  the  name  Debir  applied  by  the  Arabs  to  a  place  south- 
west of  Hebron,  where  there  was  said  to  be  an  abundance  of 
springs.  The  spot  has  been  visited  of  late  years,  however,  by 
Mr.  Rosen  and  Dean  Stanley,  and  the  springs  which  Achsah 
counted  are  now  to  be  plainly  seen.     The  whole  family  of 


156  MODERN   RESEARCHES. 

Caleb  appear  to  have  inherited  his  adventurous  spirit,  for  it 
was  his  own  nephew  wlio  captured  Debii-,  and  it  was  to  his 
daughter's  eager  and  masculine  spirit  that  he  yielded  those 
springs  which  were  worth  as  much  to  her  future  husband,  as 
was  the  very  city  of  Kirjath-sephir  (Debu-),  which  he  con- 
quered with  his  own  bold  hand. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

TROUBLOUS  DAYS  — THE  JUDGES  — DEBORAH. 

The  Subjugation  not  Perfect  as  Yet — Adonibezek — His  Cruelties — Some  very 
Strong  Cities  which  had  not  been  Taken— A  Touch  of  Humor — The  Five 
Philistine  Cities — Gath  not  to  be  found — Who  were  the  Canaanites? — Great 
Invasion  from  the  East — The  First  of  the  Judges — The  Second  Judge— The 
Scene  Changes  to  the  Jordan — Ehud  and  Eglon — The  Great  Battle  of  Debo- 
rah—Description of  the  Plain  of  Jezreel— The  Battle  Painted— Heroism  of 
Deborah — Geographical  Localities  Visible  at  the  Present  Time — The  Vic- 
tory— Reflections. 

[HE  opening  chapter  of  the  book  of  Judges  makes 
very  clear  that  the  conquest  by  Joshua  had  not 
brought  about  that  perfect  subjugation  of  the  coun- 
try which  was  necessary  to  bring  peace  to  the  Israehtes.  The 
terror  of  his  name  had  kept  the  original  inhabitants  down  so 
long  as  he  lived ;  but  when  the  great  chieftain  had  died,  and 
his  bones  had  been  laid  away  in  Timnath-serah,  to  He  almost 
unnoticed,  till  the  site  was  discovered  a  few  miles  north-west 
of  Jerusalem,  by  our  countryman  Dr.  Eli  Smith,  there  arose 
those  discords  that  were  inevitable,  and  it  was  clear  that  Pal- 
estine was  but  half  subjugated.  The  first  movement  was  the 
rebellion  of  the  king  of  Bezek,  a  city  whose  site  is  not  known 
to  us,  but  which  is  said  in  Samuel  to  have  lain  between  Gib- 
eah  and  Jabesh.  This  is  perhaps  enough  for  practical  pur- 
poses, and  makes  clear  that  as  one  journeys  north-eastward 
from  Jerusalem,  and  reaches  the  eastern  limits  of  the  hill-coun- 
try before  going  down  into  the  Valley  of  the  Jordan,  he  passes 
near  the  site  of  this  ancient  city.  The  king  appears  to  have 
been  a  monster  of  cruelty,  and  to  have  maimed  the  chiefs 
whom  he  captured,  by  a  device  which  is  said  to  have  been 


158  THE   STRONGEST   PLACES   NOT   TAKEN. 

practiced  at  one  time  even  by  the  Athenians  themselves.  The 
word  "kings"  which  this  lord  of  Bezek  is  said  to  have  used  in 
summing  up  his  hst  of  brutalities  must  be  taken  with  a  cer- 
tain measure  of  reserve,  for  of  true  "kings"  there  were  only 
thirty-one  in  the  whole  land  of  Palestine,  as  we  know  from 
the  complete  list  given  us  in  the  narrative  of  Joshua's  exploits. 
Adonibezek's  "kings"  were  probably  chieftams,  men  who 
may  possibly  have  had  as  much  influence  and  power  as  an 
Indian  chief,  but  hardly  more. 

In  narrating  the  list  of  cities  whose  inhabitants  were  not 
driven  out  by  the  Israelites,  it  is  noticeable  at  a  glance  that 
they  were  among  the  strongest  in  all  Palestine.  Such  places 
as  Accho,  Sidon,  Beth-shean,  Dor  and  the  Hke,  were  very 
.strong,  and  it  is  a  fine  touch,  almost  of  humor,  where  the  sa- 
cred penman  says,  "but  the  Canaanites  would  dwell  in  that 
land."  It  is  quite  wonderful  indeed,  that  after  Joshua  had 
died,  the  primitive  inhabitants  were  so  far  held  in  subjection 
as  to  pay  tribute  to  their  conquerors.  No  solution  for  this  ex- 
ists, so  far  as  I  know,  but  one  wliich  recognizes  a  direct  up- 
holding of  the  Jews  by  a  di\'ine  hand.  According  to  all  hu- 
man ways  of  judging  and  of  speaking,  the  conquerors  were 
much  the  feebler  and  less  civilized  people  :  and  yet  even  when 
there  was  no  chieftain  like  Joshua  in  command,  there  was  in 
them  that  degree  of  fire,  and  power  and  sturdiness,  and  above 
all  of  faith  in  the  Hebrew  God,  that  energized  them  up  to 
the  point  of  being  able  to  maintain  the  results  of  the  conquest, 
at  least  creditably.  Indeed,  to  a  certam  extent  they  went  on 
with  the  work  of  overcoming  those  whom  Joshua  had  not  sub- 
dued, and  took  the  two  powerful  Philistine  cities,  Gaza  and 
Ashkelon,  close  by  the  sea-coast,  and  in  the  fertile  plain  at  the 
foot  of  the  Judean  hills.  Yet  their  results  were  limited  in 
this  direction,  for  armed  as  were  their  enemies  in  that  fruitful 
tract,  with  chariots  of  war,  it  was  quite  impossible  for  the  Is- 
raelites to  meet  them  on  equal  terms  with  their  rude  spears. 
Indeed  Dan,  whose  allotment  had  been  the  northern  extremity 
of  the  plain,  or  "valley"  as  it  is  called  in  the  books  of  Joshua 


j||ljiiii:iP'iKip^5^i!ii5if'^'^|j| 


:.  .lflll!''!|l|!i!illilli!ll 


IMf^'^ 


Mm'- 


iP; 


\m0'' 


10 


160  THE   PHILISTINE   PLAIN. 

and  Judges,  was  unable  to  hold  its  own,  and  was  driven  by 
the  rude  and  hard-handed  Amorites  out  from  their  domain,  and 
compelled  to  find  such  lodgment  as  might  be  had  in  the  hill- 
country  of  Ephraim  at  the  north.  Yet  the  power  of  the  lat- 
ter tribe,  joined  to  that  of  the  flying  Danites,  was  equal  to  the 
task  of  successfully  encountering  the  victors  on  the  plain,  at 
least  so  far  as  if  not  to  reduce  them  to  absolute  subjection,  to 
compel  them  to  pay  tribute. 

The  Scripture  narrative  is  very  explicit  in  giving  us  the 
names  of  the  tribes  which  were  not  brought  into  absolute  sub- 
jection, and  nothing  can  be  more  true  to  what  we  should  ex- 
pect to  find,  than  is  the  statement  of  lands  still  unsubdued. 
First  Philistia,  or  the  great  maritime  plain  south  of  Dan  and 
west  of  Judah ;  held  by  five  kings,  and  belonging  to  their  five 
important  cities,  Gaza,  Ashdod,  Ashkelon,  Gath  and  Ekrom. 
It  was  a  rich  tract,  and  the  people  who  held  it,  though  of  a 
somewhat  sluggish  temperament,  were  tolerably  well  advanced 
in  the  arts  and  refinements  of  civilization.  Though  there  was 
no  sea-coast  capable  of  being  turned  to  large  commercial  uses, 
still  Gaza  and  Ashkelon  had,  like  Athens,  their  harbors,  and 
maintained  some  relations  with  foreign  lands.  Nearly  all  these 
cities  are  to  be  seen  even  at  the  present  day,  either  in  the  form 
of  extensive  ruins,  as  Ashkelon,  or  as  a  thriving  town,  as  Gaza. 
Gath  alone  is  not  to  be  found,  although  Porter  and  some  other 
recent  travelers  think  that  they  have  discovered  its  site,  in  an 
important  strategic  position,  near  the  base  of  the  Judean  hills. 
The  name  of  Gath  has  disappeared,  but  the  names  of  the 
other  old  Philistine  cities  remain  almost  unchanged  in  sound,, 
down  to  the  present  day.  The  nation  has,  however,  passed 
away,  and  the  Syrians  who  now  inhabit  the  Philistine  plain, 
have  very  little  in  common  with  the  people  whom  the  Israel- 
ites found  it  so  difficult,  and  well-nigh  impossible  to  subdue. 
Indeed,  so  strong  were  they  in  their  chariots,  and  walled  cities, 
and  advanced  customs  of  civilization,  that  the  Hebrews  could 
do  little  more  than  imitate  them.  Shamgar,  that  notable 
judge,  who  slew  six  hundred   Philistines  with  an  ox-goad, 


I 


WHO  THE  CANAANITES   WERE.  161 

wrought  no  real  deliverance  for  his  countrymen.  It  was  a 
great  feat,  and  worthy  of  commemoration,  and  yet  the  story 
which  it  mainly  tells  is  the  entire  want  of  resources  in  the  com- 
mand of  the  Israelites,  to  do  anything  permanent  and  effective 
in  bringing  such  a  powerful  nation  as  the  Philistines  into  sub- 
jection. 

By  the  Canaanites,  who  are  alluded  to  in  the  third  chapter 
of  Judges,  as  being  unsubdued,  are  meant,  in  all  probability, 
the  dwellers  along  the  Mediterranean  shore  near  Mount  Car- 
mel  and  northward.  The  whole  country  was  known  as 
Canaan,  yet  the  name  Canaanites  was  applied  only  to  that 
portion  of  the  primitive  tribes  which  lived  by  the  sea-shore  or 
on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan.  They  were  what  would  be 
called  in  Scotland  the  "  lowlanders,"  while  the  Amorites  and 
the  Perizzites  were  "  highlanders."  The  Canaanites  were  to 
a  certain  extent  a  trading  folk,  and  it  is  probable  had  some 
slight  foreign  commerce;  hence  they  were  more  powerful 
than  the  wild  Amorites  and  Perizzites  who  lived  up  among 
the  hiUs,  and  whereas  the  latter  and  the  other  hill  tribes  were 
easily  subdued,  the  Canaanites  were  not  brought  under  the 
sway  of  the  invaders.  No  more  were  the  people  of  powerful 
Sidon  away  to  the  north,  on  the  Mediterranean  and  on  the 
extreme  western  edge  of*  the  Lebanon  slope,  a  very  strong 
position,  "  careless  and  secure,"  and  evidently  impregnable  to 
a  rude  and  savage  horde  like  the  Israelites.  Add  to  this  the 
tract  in  the  possession  of  the  northern  branch  of  the  Hivites, 
the  fertile  Ccele-Syrian  valley,  that  extremely  fertile  and  well- 
watered  and  well-defended  tract  lying  between  the  Lebanon 
and  Anti-Lebanon  chains,  and  extending  from  Hermon  and 
the  sources  of  the  Jordan  away  northward  as  far  as  to  the 
"entering  in  of  Hamath,"  the  narrow  gorge  through  which  the 
Orontes  stUl  breaks  and  foams  as  of  old,  and  where  stands, 
even  at  the  present  day,  and  with  name  but  slightly  changed, 
the  old  Bible  city  of  Hamath.  Porter  has  visited  it  and  des- 
cribed it  graphically  in  his  interesting  works  on  Palestine. 

All  this  territory  had  been  promised  to  the  tribes  by  Moses, 


162  AN   INVASION  FROM   THE  EAST. 

but  the  time  when  it  could  be  reckoned  as  belonging  to  Israel 
had  not  then  come.  At  any  rate,  the  nation  was  unequal  to 
the  task  of  conquering  it  under  the  reign  of  the  violent,  un- 
disciplined "judges."  It  embraced,  as  the  reader  will  see, 
some  of  the  very  finest  districts  in  the  whole  country ;  the 
PhiHstine  plain,  a  part  of  the  Sharon  plain,  its  continuation 
northward,  the  coast  north  of  Carmel,  the  western  slope  of 
the  Lebanon  range,  and  the  beautiful  and  fertile  valley  be- 
tween the  Lebanon  and  the  Anti-Lebanon  ranges. 

The  first  invasion  which  troubled  the  Israelites  was  from 
the  same  general  region  whence  had  come  those  four  kings 
who  came  from  the  Euphrates  in  the  time  of  Abraham,  and 
waged  war  upon  the  five  cities  of  the  plain.  The  Euphrates' 
banks  and  the  borders  of  the  Tigris  have  been  from  the  very 
morning  of  the  world,  the  prolific  mother  of  nations.  Early 
in  the  Bible,  indeed  in  connection  with  the  story  of  the  cre- 
ation, we  have  those  two  rivers  mentioned ;  and  it  is  but  typi- 
cal of  all  that  was  to  follow.  Mesopotamia  has  been  a  kind 
of  a  nursing  mother  to  the  East.  And  the  conquest  of  Canaan 
was  hardly  past,  and  the  people  had  just  settled  down  to  the 
quiet  possession  of  the  land,  when  a  strong  king  swept  down 
from  the  district  east  of  the  Euphrates,  as  if  in  anticipation 
of  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonish  invaders  who  were  afterwards 
to  come,  and  overran  the  land,  and  compelled  the  Hebrews  to 
pay  tribute  to  him  and  pass  into  the  same  subordinate  re- 
lations to  him,  which  the  conquered  tribes  maintained  towards 
their  conquerors.  This  called  out  the  first  achievements  which 
make  an  individual's  name  prominent,  subsequently  to  Caleb's 
and  Othniel's  achievements  in  the  South.  And  this  first 
judge,  who  gained  a  victory  over  Cushan-rishathaim,  and 
drove  him  back  from  Palestine  to  Mesopotamia,  was  the  very 
Othniel,  Caleb's  nephew,  who  had  in  his  youth  showed  that 
he  was  worthy  to  be  a  son-in-law  to  the  old  chieftain,  as  well 
as  to  have,  as  his  nephew,  Caleb's  family  blood  in  his  veins. 

The  next  judge's  career  takes  us  down  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Gilgal,  and  revives  the  recollections  of  the  Israelites'  pas- 


STORY   OF   EHUD   AND   EGLON.  163 

sage  of  the  Jordan,  the  taking  of  Jericho,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  the  camp  at  Gilgal.  The  Moabites,  who  when  the 
IsraeHtes  passed  through  their  land,  had  been  driven  into  the 
south  part  of  their  country,  that  is,  into  the  region  east  of 
the  Dead  Sea,  had  now  rallied,  crossed  the  river  and  had 
taken  possession  of  the  west  bank  of  the  Jordan.  Eglon,  the 
king,  had  built  him  a  summer  palace  not  far  from  the  site  of 
Jericho,  and  was  Uving  there  in  some  state.  The  story  of  his 
assassination  by  Ehud  is  told  so  graphically  in  the  Bible,  as  to 
need  almost  no  elucidation.  The  only  geographical  pomt  which 
may  profitably  be  allowed  to  it  is  the  verisimilitude,  which  raises 
uj)  Ehud  a  Benjamite,  one  of  the  very  tribe  on  whose  terri- 
tory he  was  living,  to  be  the  instrument  of  his  death.  It  ap- 
pears that  the  Moabites  had  crossed  the  river  at  that  very 
spot  where  the  Jordan  is  passed  now  every  summer :  only  it 
was  not  the  spring  time,  when  the  river  is  a  roaring  and  turbu- 
lent flood,  but  the  summer  time,  when  it  is  a  small  and  quiet 
stream.  The  Moabites  had  called  in  allies,  the  Ammonites, 
descendants  of  one  of  Lot's  daughters,  hving  in  the  country 
held  by  the  tribe  of  Gad,  and  the  fierce  Amalekites,  whose 
home,  so  far  as  they  had  any,  was  on  the  southern  confines 
of  Palestine.  The  slaughter  of  the  Moabites,  after  Eglon's 
assassination,  took  place  close  by  the  Jordan  ford,  not  many 
miles  distant  from  its  mouth. 

The  geographical  elucidation  of  the  first  great  decisive  bat- 
tle which  the  Israelites  were  compelled  to  fight,  is  easy.  This 
was  the  grand  encounter  in  which  the  gallant  and  heroic- 
hearted  Deborah,  a  woman  of  the  hill-country  of  Ephxaim, 
headed  the  Hebrew  host,  having  Barak,  a  man  of  Naphtali, 
as  her  right  arm.  The  scene  of  that  encounter  was  the  rich 
and  beautiful  plain  of  Esdraelon,  the  Jezreel  of  the  Bible. 
With  our -present  accurate  knowledge  of  that  tract,  we  can 
follow  the  whole  course  of  the  battle.  We  see  the  forces  of 
Jabin,  the  northern  king,  under  the  command  of  his  lieuten- 
ant Sisera,  come  down  from  Hermon  and  the  rich  coast  of  the 
Waters  of  Merom,  and  take  up  their  post  on  the  southern  hm- 


DEBORAH   AND   BARAK.  165 

its  of  the  plain  of  Esdraelon,  the  place  where  stood  then  the 
city  of  Taanach,  and  where  stands  now  the  village  of  Taanak, 
wearing  the  ancient  name  almost  unchanged.  The  distance 
across  the  plain  is  about  twelve  miles,  from  the  place  where 
Sisera's  army  was  drawn  up,  with  its  nine  hundred  iron  chari- 
ots, for  battle,  to  the  slopes  of  Tabor,  on  which  beautiful  moun- 
tain, were  Barak  and  Deborah,  and  ten  thousand  eager  men. 
These  had  come  together  from  the  hills  of  Naphtali,  in  the 
north,  the  district  in  which  lay  Hazar,  the  capital  of  the  en- 
emy, for  since  the  time  when  Joshua  gained  his  second  splen- 
did victory,  the  Hazar  which  he  burned  had  been  rebuilt,  and 
the  Jabin  whom  he  overthrew  and  put  to  the  sword  had  been 
followed  by  another  prince  of  the  same  name,  and  no  less 
powerful  and  energetic  than  had  been  his  ancestor.  The  home 
of  Barak  was  at  Kedesh,  a  short  distance  south,  in  all  proba- 
bility of  Hazar,  though,  as  has  already  been  remarked  in  this 
work,  it  is  impossible  to  point  out  with  certainty,  the  place 
where  Hazar  stood,  Kedesh  is,  however,  well  known :  it  bears 
the  old  name,  only  changed  into  Kades,  and  is  at  the  west- 
ern margin  of  the  rich  plain  which  borders  Lake  Huleh,  the 
Waters  of  Merom,  on  the  west.  The  Israelite  army  was  made 
up  chiiefly  of  warriors  from  the  northern  tribes  of  Naphtali, 
and  Zebulon,  directly  south  of  it :  yet  Issachar,  which  filled 
the  plain,  and  West  Manasseh,  and  Ephraim,  gave  not  only 
the  great  leader,  Deborah,  and  some  of  the  commanding 
princes,  but  a  not  inconsiderable  number  of  soldiers.  Asher, 
lying  on  the  western  slope  of  the  hills  of  Galilee,  and  on  the 
sea-coast  north  of  Garmel,  felt  that  it  had  little  at  stake  in  the 
contest,  and  so  ingloriously  stayed  away  from  the  field,  while 
Dan,  Judah,  and  Simeon  at  the  South,  were  so  far  removed 
from  the  scene  of  action,  as  to  make  no  appearance  on  the 
eventful  day  of  the  great  battle. 

Imagine  the  scene.  Here  lies,  on  the  northern  edge  of  the 
plain,  the  beautiful,  cone-like  Tabor,  and  on  its  sides  are 
gathered  the  ten  thousand  bold  men  under  the  command  of 
Barak.     At  the  summit,  Deborah,  the  real  leader  and  hero 


166  THE    SCKNE   OF   THE   BATTLE. 

of  the  day,  is  scanning  with  her  scorching,  impassioned 
glance,  the  whole  plain.  Southward,  at  the  distance  of 
twelve  or  thirteen  miles,  lies  the  low,  bare  range,  which  at 
its  western  extremity,  where  it  overlooks  the  sea,  bears  the 
well-known  name  of  Carmel,  but  which"  at  that  point  was 
called  the  mountains  of  Mogiddo,  from  a  little  city  thus 
designated,  at  the  base  of  then-  northern  slope.  Near  Me- 
giddo  was  the  city  of  Taanach.  Both  of  the  places  had  never 
been  fairly  subdued ;  they  were  still  in  the  hands  of  the 
Canaanites,  as  well  as  the  other  important  points  in  the  valley 
of  Jezreel.  Between  Megiddo  and  Taanach,  Deborah's  eye 
discerns  the  crowded  hosts  of  Sisera,  with  their  hundreds  of 
chariots.  It  was,  of  course,  that  these  might  come  into  play 
that  the  Canaanites  had  chosen  this  spot.  Elsewhere  they 
might  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  impetuous  Hebrews,  but  here, 
they  might  well  count  themselves  certain  of  the  day.  Flow- 
ins:  between  the  two  armies,  Deborah  could  see  the  waters  of 
the  Kishon,  slowly  winding  its  extremely  tortuous  way  through 
the  rich,  black  soil  of  the  plain.  It  is  a  torrent  after  heavy 
winter  rains,  but  near  Megiddo,  it  must  have  ordinarily  been, 
what  it  is  now,  almost  a  dry  water-course.  Across  it,  it  would 
be  easy  for  an  army  to  pass.  Near  Megiddo,  indeed  it  seems 
to  have  gathered  in  little  pools,  and  so  to  have  given  rise  to 
an  expression,  otherwise  unintelligible,  the  "  waters  of  Me- 
giddo," but  the  stream  itself  was  quite  insignificant.  The 
plan  of  the  attack  was  for  the  Hebrew  host  to  dart  down  the 
mountain  side,  sweep  across  the  plain,  and  without  weapons, 
for  they  were  almost  defenceless,  to  turn  the  horses  upon"  the 
very  host  that  used  them,  and  so  to  transform  the  chariots 
into  engines  of  wholesale  destruction  among  the  Canaanites 
themselves.  The  well  known  war  cry  of  the  Israelites  would 
have  been  very  effective  in  doing  this,  and  at  the  same  time 
in  striking  terror  into  the  hearts  of  their  enemies.  The  plan 
was  carried  into  effect,  and  had  a  wonderfully  efficient  ally  in 
a  violent  storm  of  hail  and  rain  that  came  up  from  the  east, 
benumbing  the  Canaanites,  and  causing  them  to  become  an 


THE   GREAT   VICTORY.  1^7 

easy  prey.  The  storm  which  effected  such  results,  did  the 
Israelites  a  no  less  signal  service  in  flooding  the  Kishon,  and 
converting  the  whole  district  into  a  morass,  in  which  the 
horses  and  the  men  wallowed  and  perished.  The  Hebrew 
victory  was  complete.  Sisera  leaped  from  his  chariot  and  es- 
caped to  the  hills  which  bound  Esdi-aelon  on  the  north,  his 
hope  being  to  fly  to  Harosheth,  his  home.  But  tarrying  at  a 
Bedouin  village  on  the  way,  he  was  betrayed  in  a  manner 
which  is  inconsistent  with  any  principles  of  Arab  honor  now, 
and  which  was  equally,  so  then ;  and  which  can  only  be  de- 
fended by  recourse  to  a  line  of  reasoning  which  made  the  late 
American  war  a  righteous  one,  and  which,  therefore,  throws 
upon  God  the  responsibility  for  all  acts  of  cruelty  which  in 
the  course  of  his  Providence  are  sure  to  be  instrumental  in 
ushering  in  the  events  which  He  plainly  ordains. 


CHAPTER   X. 

GIDEON  AND  HIS  GREAT  DELIVERANCE. 

A  Difficult  Theme — Some  Localities  Unknown — Who  were  the  MiJianite  Iti- 
vaders? — The  Bedouin  of  That  Day — Tlieir  Costume  and  Manners — Where 
They  Crossed  the  Jordan — The  Plain  of  Esdraelon — Its  Physical  Conforma- 
tion— The  Order  of  the  Midianite  Invasion — Who  Entered  into  the  Alliance 
Against  Them — The  Character  of  Gideon — His  Call  as  a  Deliverer — His 
Brothers — The  "Spring  of  Trembling" — The  Sifting  of  His  Men — How  he 
got  rid  of  the  Cowards — The  Night  Attack — The  Victory — The  Pursuit  into 
the  High  Lands  East  of  the  Jordan — Death  of  the  "  Raven  "  and  the  "  Woir' 
— Ciiange  in  Gideon's  Character. 

E  advance  in  our  efforts  to  localize  the  .scenes  of  the 
Judges,  to  the  great  and  splendid  transactions  in 
which  Gideon,  the  greatest  of  them  all,  was  the 
chief  figure.  It  is  impossible  to  portray  the  theater  of  his 
exploits  with  the  perfect  fidehty  with  which  we  can  present 
the  battle-field  in  which  Barak  and  Deborah  won  such  a  bril- 
liant success.  Still  although  we  do  not  know  where  some  of 
the  minor  localities  were,  with  which  Avere  connected  the  ca- 
reer of  Gideon,  we  have  enough  to  make  perfectly  clear,  the 
whole  course  and  conduct  of  his  memorable  campaign.  The 
Midianites  who  invaded  Palestine  subsequently  to  Deborah's 
day,  occupied  in  a  general  sense,  the  whole  country  east  and 
south-east  of  the  Jordan,  as  far  as  any  population  extended. 
Their  true  home  was  east  of  the  Sinaitic  peninsula,  in  Arabia 
proper,  but  they  were  a  wandering  race,  and  often  overran  and 
held  temporary  possession  of  the  tract  east  of  the  Jordan, 
subjecting  to  their  sway  the  tribes  whose  true  home  was  therel 
At  the  time  of  Gideon  this  was  the  case ;  and  they  had 
strengthened  themselves  by  forming  an  alliance  with  the  fierce 


CAPTURE   OF   THE   RAVEN    AND   THE   WOLF.  169 

and  savage  Amalekites,  whose  true  home  was  on  the  southern 
margin  of  Palestine.  We  must  not  imagine  that  these  tribes 
were  at  all  different  from  the  Bedouins  of  the  present  day. 
They  were  in  fact  the  same  Arabs  whom  we  now  encounter 
east  of  the  Jordan ;  and  the  very  names  of  the  Midianite 
princes  Oreb  and  Zeeb,  the  Wolf  and  the  Raven,  are  in  strik- 
ing analogy  with  the  present  fierce  chieftain  east  of  the  Jor- 
dan, who  bears  the  name  of  the  Leopard.  And  besides  the 
names,  the  very  dress  and  ornaments  described  in  the  book  of 
Judges,  are  exactly  those  which  the  Arabs  wear  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  especially  those  who  drift  up  thither  from  the  more 
sunny  and  fertile  regions  of  Arabia.  The  bright,  gay  robes 
which  the  Midianite  princes  wore,  and  their  ear-rings  and 
bracelets  and  nose-rings  of  gold,  are  just  what  Arab  chieftains 
love  now :  and  no  better  picture  of  Arab  manners,  bravery, 
fortitude,  and  desolating  warfare  could  be  given  in  our  time, 
than  this  in  the  Bible,  which  pictures  the  Arabs  so  many  gen- 
erations before  Christ. 

They  crossed  the  Jordan  at  some  of  the  fords  near  the 
eastern  edge  of  the  plain  of  Jezreel,  or  Esdraelon.  That  fer- 
tile tract  has  always  been  the  prize  first  aimed  at  by  invading 
hordes  from  the  east  side  of  the  Jordan,  and  the  great  reason 
why  it  is  not  a  perfect  garden  at  the  present  time,  is  because  no 
sooner  is  the  harvest-time  almost  come,  than  a  swarm  of  fierce 
Bedouins  from  beyond  the  river,  come  in  and  overcome  the  cul- 
tivators of  the  soil,  and  carry  away  the  new  harvest.  One  of 
the  first  advantages  which  would  accrue  from  a  reformed  gov- 
ernment in  Syria,  would  be  the  giving  security  to  the  people 
who  till  the  fertile  lands  of  that  country,  to  harvest  their  grain. 
And  nowhere  would  this  gain  be  more  quickly  or  more  gen- 
erally felt  than  in  Esdraelon,  for  there  is  where  the  exposure 
is  the  greatest. 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  this  plain  extends  in  ef- 
fect from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Jordan :  not  in  its  full 
width  indeed,  but  still  in  a  contracted  form.  South  of  Tabor 
there  is  a  kind  of  isthmus  of  plain,  so  to  speak,  lying  between 


170  THE    PLAIN   OF   JEZREEL. 

that  graceful  mountain  and  Jebel  Duhy,  or  Little  Hermon 
(the  Hill  of  Moreh  apparently,  in  the  biblical  account  of 
Gideon).  South  of  this  mountain,  too,  there  is  stiU  another 
isthmus,  lying  between  it  and  the  low  Gilboa  ridge.  These 
two  isthmuses,  if  I  may  apply  that  term  to  land  that  lies  be- 
tween mountains,  are  but  eastern  tongues  or  arms  of  the  plain'' 
of  Jezreel.  A  railway  might  run  from  the  Mediterranean  to 
the  Jordan  without  difficulty,  although  the  plain  reaches  a 
height  of  about  five  hundred  feet  at  the  point  where  it  con- 
tracts into  the  tongues  which  form  its  eastern  portion.  By 
imderstanding  this  region,  we  gain  the  best  insight  into  the 
operations  of  Gideon,  and  can  easily  follow  him  through  his 
rapid  and  decisive  campaign.  The  event  which  was  exhibited 
in  connection  with  Deborah  was  a  less  splendid  achievement 
than  the  series  of  Gideon's  victories,  and  although  in  a  certain 
colossal  massiveness  and  strength,  Deborah  has  no  equal  in  the 
Bible  history,  still  in  the  combination  of  qualities  which  make 
up  a  great  hero,  Gideon  was  conspicuously  her  superior.  In 
Deborah  we  have  clearly  the  inspiration  of  a  heroine :  there 
is  a  certain  afflatus  which  supplies  the  place  of  those  cool  and 
practical  features  which  ought  to  be  found  in  a  great  soldier. 
In  Gideon  there  is  less  of  the  prophetic  fire  and  force  than  in 
Deborah ;  but  there  is  greater  military  skiU  even  than  Joshua 
exhibits. 

The  Midianites  had  crossed  the  Jordan,  flooded  the  plain 
of  Jezreel,  poured  over  the  hills  of  West  Manasseh  and  Eph- 
raim,  and  had  even  traversed  the  Philistine  plain,  and  con- 
sumed every  product  of  the  earth  as  far  even  as  Gaza.  The 
whole  number  was  very  great,  about  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  thousand.  To  the  eye  of  the  Israelites  this  was  a  mighty 
host,  and  the  language  which  describes  these  Arab  savages, 
and  the  space  occupied  by  their  slumbering  camels,  is  hardly 
to  be  called  hyperbolical.  They  apparently  so  completely 
overawed  the  tribe  of  Issachar,  whose  home  was  on  the  plain 
of  Jezreel,  that  they  were  unable  to  assist  at  aU  in  expelling 
the  foreigners  from   the  land.     Just  as  in   the  deliverance 


'Ak'M'M.li'lMWi^l'J..,", 


if'f'smsB^, 


^l|l|l|fl!lli 


:Mi 


WVf 


172  SOLDIERLY   QUALITIES   OF   GIDEON. 

under  Borak  and  Deborah,  the  tribes  which  enlisted  most 
heartily  in  the  work  of  achieving  independence,  were  those 
which  Hved  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  so  in  this  case 
Manasseh,  Naphtali,  and  Zebiilon,  are  the  most  eager.  Asher 
on  the  north-western  hills,  and  also  on  the  very  coast  Une  of 
the  great  plain,  came  to  the  rescue  now,  although  she  had  not 
done  so  when  Jabin  had  attacked  Israel.  Ephraim  came  into 
the  alliance,  but  not  promptly.  Gideon  was  himself  a  Man- 
nassite,  but  just  where  his  native  town  of  Ophrah  lay,  we  do 
not  know.  I  have  already  alluded  to  the  great  qualities  which 
distinguished  Gideon.  A  great  soldier  of  our  time  might  study 
his  character  with  profit.  He  had  the  same  qualities  which 
make  generals  both  victorious  and  famous,  caution,  decision, 
acuteness,  rapidity  of  movement,  and  courage.  There  is  not  a 
step  that  he  takes  which  is  not  deliberation  itself,  and  yet  when 
the  campaign  opens,  he  sweeps  on  with  resistless  speed  and  en- 
ergy. Those  acts  of  his  which  are  commonly  passed  over  unre- 
flectively  in  reading  the  Bible  narrative,  are  full  of  instruction 
respecting  the  nature  of  the  man.  Notice  how  slow  he  is  to 
accept  his  call  to  the  chief  command :  how  he  turns  it  and 
turns  it,  to  see  that  there  is  no  mistake.  Distrustful  of  the 
comparatively  humble  place  which  his  family  holds  in  Israel, 
and  even  in  his  own  tribe,  he  is  not  content  with  a  simple  in- 
timation that  he  is  wanted,  but  must  prove  the  truth  so  to 
speak,  out  of  the  very  mouth  of  the  angel.  The  narrative 
incidentally  lets  much  light  fall  upon  the  manners  of  the 
time.  We  see  in  Gideon's  threshing  of  the  wheat,  in  order  to 
hide  it  from  the  Midianites,  how  thoroughly  fear-stricken  was 
the  whole  land ;  while  in  the  introduction  of  Baal  worship  by 
Gideon's  father,  we  learn  how  far  the  old  Jehovah  worship 
had  yielded  to  the  false  and  blasphemous  rites  of  the  primi- 
tive Canaanites.  But  convinced  at  length  that  he  is  called 
to  a  high  and  solemn  mission,  he  takes  command  of  the  armies 
of  Israel.  His  own  brothers,  men  of  princely  bearing,  as  was 
Gideon  himself,  had  been  slain  by  the  Midianites  on  the  sides 
of  Tabor,  and  no  doubt  this  inhuman  butchery  had  its  injflu- 


THE  PROVING   OF   HIS  MEN.  173 

ence  in  Imrrjdng  on  the  newly  appointed  general.  The  main 
body  gathered  at  the  eastern  part  of  the  plain  of  Jezreel,  in 
the  defile  between  the  Gilboa  range  and  the  solitary  peak  of 
little  Hermon,  the  hill  of  Moreh,  as  it  is  called  in  the  Scrip- 
tural narrative.  Near  the  base  of  the  former  heights  was  a 
spring,  to  be  seen  at  the  present  day,  where  Gideon  was  to 
sift  his  army,  and  reserve  only  those  on  whom  he  might  im- 
plicitly rely.  His  trial  of  them  by  watching  them  drink,  was 
exceedingly  shrewd,  and  indicates  his  thorough  knowledge 
of  men.  Those  who  in  their  great  thirst  buried  their  mouths 
in  the  water  of  the  spring,  Gideon  rejected  as  too  precipitate, 
and  did  not  dare  to  trust  them  as  soldiers,  but  he  reserved  as 
fully  trustworthy  those  who  took  up  the  water  with  their 
fingers  in  a  deliberate  and  orderly  fashion.  The  causing  the 
cowards  to  withdraw  from  the  scene  of  battle,  after  due  proc- 
lamation, was  in  accordance  with  the  old  custom  of  the  nation. 
This  proclamation^  "  Whosoever  is  fearful  and  afraid,  let  him 
return  and  depart  early  from  mount  Gilead,  (Gilboa,")  re- 
duced the  number  from  twenty-two  thousand  to  ten  thousand. 
The  trial  at  the  well,  (or  spring)  of  Harod,  diminished  the 
number  down  to  three  hundred.  God  seems  able  to  effect 
more  by  a  few  resolute  and  valiant  ones,  than  by  a  host  of  the 
timid  and  hasty,  and  undisciplined. 

After  all  was  ready  for  the  battle,  Gideon  with  his  three 
hundred  wound  down  the  pass  between  the  hill  of  Moreh, 
(little  Hermon,  Jebel  Duhy),  on  the  north,  and  the  mountains 
of  Gilboa  on  the  south.  It  was  a  tongue,  as  I  have  elsewhere 
showed,  of  the  plain  of  Jezreel  or  Esdraelon,  and  led  directly 
down  to  the  Jordan.  In  the  valley  of  this  river  was  the  vast 
Midianite  camp.  Before  making  the  attack,  which  was  to  be 
done  in  the  night,  while  the  enemy  lay  and  slept,  Gideon  crept 
down  among  the  tents  of  the  sleepers,  to  spy  into  the  position 
and  learn  the  best  mode  of  attack.  He  accidentally  passed 
near  an  Arab  who  was  telling  his  dream :  how  a  thin  cake  of 
barley  bread  rolled  into  the  Midianite  camp,  and  overturned 
his  tent.     His  companion  answered,  this  is  nothing  but  the 


174  THE  STRATEGY  OF  GIDEON. 

sword  of  Gideon.  The  answer  convinced  the  unseen  Israelite 
leader  that  there  was  a  wholesome  fear  of  his  name  among 
his  enemies,  and  toned  him  up  to  just  the  spu-it  requisite  for 
a  bold  stroke.  For  a  bold  stroke  it  unquestionably  was :  a 
question  of  life  or  death  to  the  attacking  party;  one  in 
which  the  chances  were  enormously  unequal.  On  the  one 
side  were  three  hundred  men  ;  on  the  other,  one'  hundred  and 
thirty-five  thousand.  The  Midianites  were  probably  the  best 
equipped,  but  the  Israelites  were  desperate.  The  device  of 
hiding  the  torches  in  pitchers  might  have  been  seen  till  very 
lately  in  the  streets  of  Cairo,  where  until  a  few  years  ago,  it 
was  the  custom  for  the  night  police  to  patrol  the  streets  with 
torches  thrust  into  pitchers,  from  which  they  drew  them  when- 
ever it  was  necessary.  The  strategy  employed  by  Gideon  was 
triumphantly  successful.  The  sound  of  the  cow  horns  blown 
by  the  Israelites  in  the  darkness  of  the  night,  the  glare  of  the 
torches,  the  shouting  of  the  Hebrew  warriors,  always  a  terri- 
ble sound,  but  now  especially  so,  as  they  raised  their  deafenmg 
war-cry,  "  The  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon,"  completely 
bewildered  the  Arab  hordes :  they  sprang  up  suddenly,  their 
camels  were  doubtless  terrified  and  carried  death  wherever 
they  ran,  the  men  turned  against  each  other,  and  of  the  whole 
number  but  fifteen  thousand  escaped,  while  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  fell  at  one  anothers'  hands. 

This  ended  the  battle,  but  the  remaining  troops  of  the  en- 
emy fled  towards  the  nortliern  fords  of  the  Jordan.  Gideon 
had  however  anticipated  them,  and  had  ordered  the  Ephraim- 
ites,  east  of  whose  territory  lay  the  fords  of  Beth-bara,  to 
come  down  and  intercept  the  retreating  foe.  Here  another 
rout  took  place ;  the  Ephraimites  captured  two  Arab  sheiks, 
Oreb  and  Zeeb,  the  Raven  and  the  Wolf,  and  put  them  to 
death,  the  former  on  a  rack,  and  the  latter  on  a  wine-press, 
which  thenceforth  bore  their  respective  names.  Meantime  the 
remnant  of  the  Midianites  had  crossed  the  Jordan  at  the  fords 
of  Succoth,  a  little  further  south,  and  thence  plunged  up  the 
vaUey  of  the  Jabbok  into  the  mountains  of  Gilead,  passing  on 


THE  CLOSE   OF   THE  BATTLE.  173 

their  way  the  tower  of  Penuel,  the  site  of  Jacob's  victorious 
wrestling.  Still  eastward,  into  the  very  fastnesses  of  the  Gil- 
ead  range,  the  Arabs  pursued  their  hurried  retreat,  while 
Gideon  followed,  "faint,  yet  pursuing."  The  third  battle 
took  place  near  Karkor,  a  place  now  unknown,  but  unques- 
tionably one  of  those  rock  strongholds,  where  an  army  might 
hold  a  large  number  at  bay,  but  where  the  Midianites  were 
signally  unable  to  resist  the  flushed  and  eager  conquerors. 
The  two  kings  were  taken  and  slain :  and  thus  that  invasion, 
one  of  the  most  formidable  that  could  occur,  was  brought  to 
an  end.  Gideon  was  urged  to  assume  kingly  power,  but  like 
Cromwell,  he  refused  the  name,  while  he  was  willing  to  ac- 
cept the  state  of  a  king.  As  with  Solomon,  his  great  successes 
wrought  mischief  in  his  character:  he  became  voluptuous 
and  profligate  ;  and  in  the  Gideon  to  whom  the  gold  earrings, 
and  collars  and  chains,  and  purple  raiment,  taken  from  the 
enemy,  became  a  snare,  we  have  few  traces  of  the  brave  and 
able  general,  to  whose  great  skill  and  trustful  loyalty  to  God, 
his  nation  was  indebted  for  a  grand  deliverance. 

There  is  no  question  that  this  victory  over  the  Midianites 
at  once  took  its  place,  as  an  event  of  transcendent  moment 
in  the  history  of  the  Israelites.  David  refers  to  it  with  great 
enthusiasm,  in  connection  with  the  conquest  of  Sihon  and  Og, 
the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  victory  of  Deborah  over 
Sisera. 


11 


CHAPTER  XI. 

ABIMELECH  THE  TYRANT  AND  JEPHTHAH  THE  FREEBOOTER. 

A  Tragic  Tale — The  Fertile  Vale  of  Shechem — Its  Conformation  and  Ancient 
Landmarks — The  Scene  of  Jotham's  Parable  —  Other  Important  Sites  — 
Jephthah's  Home  East  of  the  Jordan — A  Wild,  Rugged  Character — How 
Jephthah  Resembles  Elijah — The  Wildest  of  the  Arabs — The  First  Move- 
ment of  the  Freebooter — The  Territory  of  Ammon — The  Crisis  for  which 
Jephthah  was  Raised  Up — The  Brief  Campaign  Against  the  Ammonites — 
The  Scene  of  the  World  famous  Vow — The  Daughter's  Fate. 

f  .  •  .  . 

j  HE  tragic  story  of  Abimelecli  transfers  us  to  a  familiar 
spot,  the  same  beautiful  and  fertile  vale  of  Shechem 
which  attracted  our  attention  first  in  the  story  of 
Abraham,  and  then  in  the  career  of  Jacob.  It  seems  proba- 
ble that  the  city  of  Shechem  had  attained  no  inconsiderable 
prominence  among  the  other  large  towns  of  Palestine  :  but  in 
the  lifetime  of  Abimelecli  it  assumed  at  once  the  state  and 
name  of  a  capital.  The  reader  is  probably  quite  familiar  with 
the  general  aspect  of  the  vale  of  Shechem,  still  the  story  of 
Abimelech  will  not  be  quite  intelligible  without  looking  over 
the  landscape  in  which  it  was  enacted.  Between  the  moun- 
tains of  Gerizim  and  Ebal,  the  valley  is  narrow,  in  some  places 
but  a  few  hundred  feet  wide,  and  near  the  western  extremity 
of  this  lovely  vale,  lies  the  comparatively  modern  city  of 
Nablous,  the  continuation  of  the  Sychar  of  Jesus'  time.  Tlie 
ancient  Shechem  and  the  well  of  Jacob  near  it,  were  about 
two  miles  further  east,  near  the  eastern  roots  of  Gerizim. 
Here  the  valley  has  begun  to  tunnel  out  and  curve  around 
towards  the  south,  to  merge  into  the  extremely  beautiful  plain 
known  at  the  present  time  as  El  Mukhna.  From  one  extrem- 
ity of  this  larger  plain,  which  is  integrally  one  with  the  nar- 


BEAUTY  OF  THE  VALE  OF  SHECHEM.       177 

row  vale  of  Shechera,  to  the  other,  is  a  distance  of  about 
seven  miles.  The  whole  tract  is  delightful,  but  growingly  so 
as  one  approaches  the  two  sacred  mountains  of  Ebal  and  Ger- 
izim.  Over  the  hills  which  skirt  the  northern  edge  of  the 
plain  can  be  seen  the  grand  snowy  top  of  Hermon,  eighty 
miles  away,  and  towering  more  than  ten  thousand  feet  above 
the  ocean  level.  The  vale  is  well-watered :  springs  and  brooks 
may  be  seen  at  every  turn,  and  even  the  air  is  filled  with  the 
exhalations  from  so  abundant  supplies.  The  spot  is  not  only 
the  most  beautiful  in  Central  Palestine,  but  the  only  beautiful 
one.  The  vale  of  Shechem  is  still  well  furnished  with  all  the 
growths  which  give  coloring  and  point  to  the  parable  of 
Jotham.  The  thick  mass  of  corn  which  waves  over  the  whole 
valley,  is  dotted  to-day  with  picturesque  olive  trees,  while 
around  the  white  houses  of  Nablous  may  be  seen  the  fig  tree, 
laden  with  its  good  fruit.  Interlacing  these,  may  be  descried 
the  festoons  of  the  vine,  while  on  the  sides  of  Ebal  and  Ger- 
izim  still  grows  the  bramble,  useless  except  to  be  gathered 
and  burned :  from  it  coming  in  our  time  the  same  hot  and  de- 
vouring flame  which  Jotham  ascribed  to  it  in  that  early  day. 
Towering  over  the  plain,  on  the  south,  are  the  precipitous 
sides  of  Gerizim,  and  those  projecting  spurs  of  rock  on  one  of 
which  Jotham  appeared  and  narrated  his  striking  and  beauti- 
ful parable.  In  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  this  spot  were 
the  other  places  which  are  connected  with  the  story  of  Abim- 
elech,  Moimt  Zalmon,  where  he  procured  the  boughs  which 
were  used  in  burning  the  tower  of  Shechem,  and 

Arumah,  the  city  Avhich  Abimelech  chose  for  his  residence, 
but  we  are  not  ajjle  to  identify  them  with  certainty.  Thebez, 
the  place  where  he  was  killed,  has  been  discovered.  It  bears 
its  ancient  name,  slightly  changed,  and  is  on  the  road  from 
Nablous  to  Beisan,  the  ancient  Beth-shean,  near  the  scene  of 
Gideon's  first  and  second  victories. 

The  reader  of  the  Bible  who  is  endeavoring  to  set  its  pic- 
tures before  himself  in  a  geographical  light,  is  called  in  fol- 
lowing  the  story  of  Jephthah,  to  the   district  east  of  the 


178  BIRTHPLACE   AND   HOME   OF   JEPHTHAH. 

•Jordan,  exclusively.  It  is  interesting  to  mark  how  we  are 
compelled  to  note,  as  we  go  on  in  our  development  of  our 
subject,  the  various  districts  of  Palestine,  to  enter  into  them 
in  detail,  and  so  to  work  the  whole  field  up  in  its  various 
parts,  till  at  last  we  shall  find  that  we  are  completely  in  mas- 
tery of  it.  We  have  had  occasion  on  previous  pages  to  study 
Eastern  Palestine  and  to  become,  to  a  certain  extent,  familiar 
with  it ;  but  we  must  go  over  it  again  in  tracing  the  destiny 
of  the  immortal  freebooter,  Jephthah.  He  was  a  native  of 
the  mountains  of  Gilead,  the  same  wild  district  which  gave 
birth  to  Elijah,  and  imparted  to  him  some  of  that  roughness 
which  is  so  conspicuous  a  trait  in  his  character.  But  far  more 
rough  and  wild  than  Elijah,  was  Jephthah.  And  it  is  a  fact 
that  has  been  too  much  overlooked,  that  the  fierce  qualities 
which  appear  in  him,  are  largely  to  be  accounted  for  on  the 
ground  of  his  transjordanic  origin.  At  the  present  day  all 
travelers  in  Palestine  know  that  the  Arabs  on  the  east  side  of 
the  river  are  far  more  wild  and  savage  than  those  on  the  west 
side.  It  is  extremely  dangerous  to  travel  on  the  east  side  of 
the  Jordan,  even  in  our  time  ;  and  there  is  little  room  for  be- 
lieving that  the  tribe  of  Gad  was  much  more  gentle  than  are 
the  Bedouins  of  the  present  day.  Because  they  were  He- 
brews, and  had  the  rudiments  of  a  true  worship,  we  must  not 
forget  that  in  matters  of  feeling,  and  sentiment,  and  culture, 
they  were  not  much  above  the  level  of  savages. 

The  first  movement  of  Jephthah  was  his  flight  out  of  the 
true  range  of  Gilead,  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Jordan,  into 
the  land  of  Tob,  whose  location  we  do  not  know,  but  which  it 
is  safe  to  infer,  lay  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  mountainous 
country.  The  territory  of  Ammon  was  in  a  general  sense 
what  lay  north  and  north-east  of  the  torrent  stream,  the  Jab* 
bok ;  unlike  Moab,  which  had  regularly  defined  limits,  Am- 
mon had  none,  but  being  the  possession  of  a  most  warlike  and 
nomadic  i-ace,  it  faded  away  indefinitely  on  the  side  towards 
the  desert.  A  most  formidable  race  of  savages  were  these 
Ammonites,  the  descendants  of  Lot  by  his  incest  with  one  of 


I 


180  THE   SCENE  OF   HIS   FREEBOOTER   LIFE. 

his  daughters,  and  when  they  came  into  conflict  with  the  Is- 
raelites, the  event  was  one  of  coui'se  which  demanded  a  first- 
rate  leader,  and  tried  and  valiant  men.  At  just  this  juncture, 
Jephthah  was  raised  up  to  meet  the  crisis.  Sprung  as  he  was 
from  an  irregular  connection,  and  having  a  harlot  for  his 
mother,  his  whole  hfe  was  spent  in  the  wild  deeds  of  a  free- 
booter. His  own  half-brothers  di'ove  him  forth :  and  he  led 
his  marauding  career  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Gilead  range. 
It  was  in  that  district  that  he  was  living,  when  his  clansmen 
needed  his  vigorous  and  efficient  services.  The  occasion  of 
the  war  was  the  claim  of  the  Ammonites  to  the  territory  east 
of  the  Jordan,  which  the  Israelites  occupied  by  the  right  of 
conquest.  It  was,  of  course,  impossible  to  come  to  an  under- 
standing, and  both  armies  appealed  respectively  to  the  decision 
of  arms,  and  of  the  gods  in  which  they  respectively  believed. 
Jephthah  was  put  at  the  head  of  the  Israelites  on  the  single 
condition  that,  if  he  should  be  victorious,  he  should  be  set 
over  his  tribe.  It  was  granted,  and  the  campaign  began. 
The  vow  which  has  made  Jephthah's  name  a  household  word, 
I  need  not  allude  to.  The  course  of  his  victorious  march  is 
not  given  with  any  minuteness  of  detail,  but  enough  is  re- 
corded to  enable  us  to  follow  liim  with  tolerable  precision. 
He  passed  eastward  at  the  head  of  his  bands,  to  the  old  watch 
tower  of  Mizpeh,  which  commemorated  Jacob's  parting  from 
Laban,  and  which  was  erected  on  one  of  the  most  eastern  of 
all  the  Gilead  hills.  Thence  he  bore  southward  into  the  heart 
of  the  Ammonite  country,  destroying  twenty  cities  of  the 
enemy,  and  bringing  desolation  as  far  towards  the  south  as 
Aroer,  which  was  almost  unquestionably  on  the  banks  of  the 
Arnon.  The  precise  location  of  Minnith  and  the  "  valley  of 
the  vineyards,"  is  unknown  to  us.  But  enough  is  given  to 
make  it  clear  that  he  swept  through  a  wide  tract,  the  whole 
land  unquestionably  over  which  the  Ammonites  had  any  con- 
trol, and  brought  them  into  absolute  subjection,  and  inflicted 
upon  them  very  severe  slaughter.  And  "  thus  the  children  of 
Ammon  were  subdued  before  the  children  of  Israel." 


SCENE  OP  HIS  daughter's   DEATH.  181 

There  is  nothing  further  in  the  story  of  Jephthah  which  re- 
quires geographical  elucidation.  The  mountains  over  which 
his  daughter  wandered  for  two  months,  bewailing  the  hardest 
fate  that  could  befall  a  Hebrew  maiden,  that  her  name  and 
family  should  perish  in  her,  are  unquestionably  the  rocky  hills 
of  Gilead,  amid  which  Jephthah  and  his  tribe  lived,  and  which 
were  filled  with  quiet  and  sheltered  nooks  where  a  young  girl 
might  be  alone  or  with  a  few  companions,  and  deplore  her 
coming  fate.  The  fords  wliich  the  Gileadites  intercepted,  and 
where  they  subjected  the  Ephraimites  to  the  trial  of  pronounc- 
mg  the  word  Shibboleth,  were  the  well-known  place  of  cross- 
ing near  the  mouth  of  the  Jabbok,  which  has  often  come  un- 
der our  view,  and  which  did  so  last  in  connection  with  the 
fiery  and  gallant  Gideon. 


CHAPTER  Xn. 

SAMSON  THE  GREAT  HUMORIST. 

Scene  Transferred  to  the  Hill-Country  of  Dan — Samson  a  Danite — Character 
of  the  Country  where  he  was  Reared — The  Philistines  and  their  Domain — 
Whence  They  Came — How  They  Surpassed  the  Israelites  in  Arts — The 
Gradual  Increase  of  the  Philistines'  Power — Their  Use  of  Horses  and  Chari- 
ots— The  Rudeness  of  the  Arts  of  War  Among  the  Israelites — The  Name 
Palestine  Derived  from  Philistine — The  Chief  Cities — Their  Ruins  at  the 
Present  Day — Ashkelon,  Ekron,  Ashdod — The  Physical  Character  of  the 
Philistine  Territory. 

N  dealing  with  the  interesting  story  of  Samson,  we 
are  transferred  to  a  district  with  which  we  have 
thus  far  had  little  to  do  :  namely  the  hill-country  of 
Dan,  and  the  extensive  and  fruitful  Philistine  plain.  I  have 
indeed  in  a  general  way,  alluded  to  the  territory  allotted  to 
Dan :  but  there  has  not  come  before  us  till  now,  any  necessity 
for  speaking  of  that  tribe  and  its  domain,  with  any  detail. 
Samson  was,  however,  a  Danite :  and  the  whole  story  of  his 
career  carries  us  to  that  limited  territory  shut  in  between  the 
hills  held  by  Ephraim  and  Judah,  and  the  "low  country,"  or 
Shefelah,  lying  along  by  the  sea.  It  was  a  tiny  tract,  and  one 
of  the  episodes  which  follow  the  story  of  Samson,  relates  to 
the  emigration  of  a  considerable  number  of  families  of  the 
tribe  of  Dan,  which  went  far  to  the  north  and  secured  new 
territory  there.  As  one  goes  down  from  Jerusalem  to  the 
port  of  Joppa,  he  passes  through  the  hills  and  valleys,  wliich 
at  the  time  of  allotment,  were  given  to  Dan  :  hills  and  valleys 
of  no  special  fruitfulness,  and  not  eminent  in  any  way  by  rea- 
son of  natural  attractions.  It  was  in  the  village  of  Zorah  on 
one  of  these  hills,  that  Samson  was  born,  and  the  village 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  PHILISTINES.  183 

of  Timnath,  the  home  of  his  wife,  lay  down  in  the  valley  to 
the  south-westward.  Both  of  the  places  are  now  marked  by 
unimportant  villages  which  bear  in  slightly  changed  form,  the 
ancient  names. 

The  Philistines  occupied  the  plain  from  Joppa  on  the  north, 
to  Gaza  on  the  south.  The  race  was  an  immigrant  one. 
They  were  "strangers"  as  then-  name  itself  unplies,  and  from 
all  the  information  we  can  gather,  slight  enough  indeed,  yet  so 
far  as  it  goes,  trustworthy,  they  came  fi'om  the  island  of  Crete, 
which  was  almost  in  sight  from  the  northern  part  of  Pales- 
tine, and  from  the  shores  of  Asia  Minor.  The  Scriptures 
specify  another  tribe,  bearing  the  name  of  Avites  or  Avims, 
as  occupying  PhiHstia  in  the  old,  patriarchal  times :  but  these 
had  faded  away,  and  been  supplanted  by-  the  Philistines. 
During  the  lifetime  of  Joshua,  the  latter  do  not  appear  to  have 
been  or  seemed  formidable.  We  get  no  hint  of  their  rising 
and  dangerous  power  tUl  we  come  to  the  time  of  the  Judges, 
when  they  were  evidently  a  troublesome  race.  In  arts  they 
appear  to  have  been  a  long  way  in  advance  of  the  Israelites,  but 
in  cunning  and  quickness,  to  have  been  far  behind  them.  In 
all  matters  of  warfare  they  had  an  immense  advantage,  for 
living  as  they  did  on  the  sea-side  plain,  they  were  able  to  use 
horses  and  chariots  more  effectively  than  was  possible  in  any 
other  part  of  Palestine.  It  is  in  this  thing  that  we  find  the 
key  to  the  long  protracted  wars  between  the  Israelites  and 
Philistines.  They  each  lived  in  a  different  element,  so  to  speak : 
one  nation  in  the  hill-country,  the  other  on  the  plain ;  and  so 
in  battle  they  were  almost  as  much  removed  from  each  other, 
and  as  little  able  to  come  into  e^ctive  collision,  as  is  a  regi- 
ment of  infantry  with  a  man-of-war.  The  Israelites  were  un- 
questionably most  rudely  equipped:  and  in  course  of  time 
the  arts  ran  to  so  low  a  pitch  among  the  Hebrews,  that  the 
people  were  obliged  even  to  carry  their  ploughshares  down 
to  the  Philistine  cities  to  have  them  sharpened.  The  one 
race  dwelt  in  large  and  important  cities :  their  civilization,  of 
a  somewhat  effeminate  type,  was  at  least  far  in  advance  of 


184  THE  PHILISTINE  CITIES. 

that  of  the  Israelites,  and  in  all  the  future,  down  to  David's 
time,  the  Philistines  had  the  upper  hand.  All  that  Samson 
and  others  could  do,  was  to  annoy  the  Philistines,  the  He- 
brew leaders  were  unable  to  confer  any  real  harm  on  them. 

It  is  a  fact  that  should  not  be  omitted  in  our  account,  that 
the  name  of  Palestine  is  derived  from  Philistine :  and  was 
imposed  on  the  whole  country  by  the  Europeans,  who  did  not 
look  further  into  the  population  of  the  country  than  to  see 
who  were  the  j)eople  who  lived  on  the  coast,  and  gave  the 
general  name  accordingly.  The  country  under  the  direct 
control  of  the  Philistines  ran  hard  up  to  the  promontory  of 
Carmel,  although  at  this  time  it  is  difficult  to  decide  with  cer- 
tainty what  was  the  northern  boundary  of  their  territory. 
They  were,  however,  a  race  allied  in  character  and  religion  to 
the  Phoenicians  who  held  the  northern  coast :  yet  the  latter 
occupied  this  country  much  earlier  than  did  the  Philistines, 
and  were  a  far  more  energetic  and  powerful  people.  The 
Philistines  had  the  capacity  to  develop  commercial  interests : 
but  they  did  not  do  so,  and  allowed  the  two  ports  of  Joppa 
and  Gaza  to  lie  quite  unused,  so  far  as  any  extensive  com- 
merce was  concerned.  Their  most  important  cities  were  Gaza, 
Ashkelon,  Gath,  Ekron  and  Ashdod.  Joppa,  although  under 
their  control,  was,  strictly  speaking,  not  in  their  possession,  but 
contained  the  property  of  the  tribe  of  Dan.  But  the  five 
cities  named  together  just  above,  formed  the  Philistine  con- 
federacy, and  were  not  only  collectively  powerful,  but  were 
strong  even  alone.  The  solitary  ruins  of  Ashkelon,  which 
stand  hard  by  the  sea,  bear  witness  in  their  mournful  grand- 
eur, to  the  strength  of  th*  ancient  city  whose  name  they 
bear  even  to  the  present  day  ;  while  Gaza  remains,  not  a  mass 
of  deserted  ruins,  but  a  town  of  from  five  to  seven  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  surrounded  by  orange  groves,  and  keeping 
up  active  commercial  relations  with  the  Arabs  of  the  desert 
and  the  caravans  which  pass  through,  on  their  way  to  Damas- 
cus or  to  Egypt.  Ekron  and  Ashdod  still  exist,  or  rather  very 
fragmentary  ruins  of  them  are  found :  and  Arab  villages  mark 


186  THE   PHILISTINE  TERRITORY. 

the  site  of  ancient  Philistine  cities :  but  of  Gath  not  a  trace 
remains.  Many  have  been  the  inquuies  for  it :  and  although 
I  am  strongly  inclined  to  think  that  the  white  rock  which 
may  be  seen  across  the  plain,  lying  at  the  base  of  the  Judean 
hills,  and  which  bore  in  the  Crusader's  time  the  name  Blanche 
Garde,  marks  its  site,  still  this  is  a  mere  conjecture :  and  it  is 
overset  by  that  of  Stanley  who  conjectures  that  this  white 
rock  was  the  site  of  the  ancient  city  of  Lebonah,  which  played 
an  important  role  during  the  great  Assyrian  invasion.  All 
the  Philistine  cities  with  the  exception  of  Gath  of  course, 
bear  the  ancient  names  very  slightly  changed, — Gaza  becom- 
ing Ghazzeh,  Ashkelon  being  Askelon,  Ashdod,  Esdud,  and 
Ekron  Akir. 

The  Philistine  territory  was  divided  into  two  longitudinal 
sections,  a  sandy  strip,  running  along  the  sea-shore  and  par- 
allel with  it,  and  the  other  a  strip  of  fertile  land,  extending  to 
the  very  base  of  the  hills  of  Judah  and  Dan.  It  was  in  the 
sandy  strip  that  the  cities  stood.  But  the  whole  of  the  ex- 
tensive resources  which  made  that  tract  what  it  was  to  those 
Philistine  cities  lay  in  the  great  fruitfulness  of  the  fertile 
strip.  Even  at  the  present  day,  left  in  the  neglected  state 
in  wliich  it  now  lies,  it  manifests  in  its  rank  luxuriance  what 
it  must  have  been  when  subjected  to  thorough  culture.  In 
the  height  of  midsummer  the  eye  rests,  even  in  our  day,  on 
a  broad  reach  of  grain  fields,  shaded  here  and  there  by  olive 
and  orange  trees,  and  making  the  district  beautiful  as  a  garden. 
Nothing  is  wanted  but  a  good,  stable  government  to  convert 
tliis  whole  plain  into  one  of  the  finest  regions  oh  the  globe. 
Nature  has  done  munificently  for  it,  it  is  only  man  who  has 
defrauded  it. 


CHAPTER  Xm. 

MICAH  AND  THE  LEVITE— THE  WAR  OF  EXTER\nNATION  ON 
BENJAMIN— THE  PASTORAL  OF  RUTH. 

The  Close  of  the  Book  of  Judges — The  Scene  of  Sacred  Story  Moves  to  the 
Neighborhood  of  Jerusalem  and  then  to  the  Extreme  North  of  Palestine — 
Tell  el  Kadi,  the  Mound  of  the  Judge — The  Profuse  Jordan  Spring  Found 
There — Its  Waters,  Whence  Obtained — The  Course  Taken  by  the  Spies — 
Their  Report — The  Capture  of  Laish  and  its  Fate — Tristam's  Account  of  the 
Conquered  Region — The  Great  War  of  Extermination — The  Site  of  Gibeah 
— Mizpeh,  Whence  Named — The  Old  and  the  New  Place  which  Bore  That 
Name — The  Sacredness  of  Mizpeh — The  Battle  which  Surged  Around  that 
Hallowed  Place — The  Course  of  the  Battle — The  Structure  and  Contents 
of  the  Book  of  Ruth. 

[jHE  book  of  Judges  closes  with  those  episodes  which 
do  not  follow  in  chronological  order  the  story  of 
the  spirited  leaders  whose  lives  we  have  passed  in 
geographical  review.  They  have  a  great  interest  theologi- 
cally, and  are  not  inferior  in  value  to  any  part  of  the  book. 
Yet  strictly  from  a  geographical  point  of  view,  they  need  not 
detain  ns  long.  They  bring  no  new  part  of  the  country  un- 
der observation :  although  their  specific  field  may  make  us 
look  a  little  more  closely  than  heretofore  into  the  special  to- 
pography of  particular  districts.  The  story  of  Micah  and  the 
Levite  carries-  us  from  the  tribe  of  Dan,  past  Kirjath-jearim, 
a  town  known  now  as  Kirjet-el-enab,  about  twelve  miles 
north-west  of  Jerusalem,  into  the  mountain  district  of  Eph- 
raim,  which  has  been  already  quite  fully  described.  We  leap 
over  the  passes  of  Manasseh,  the  plain  of  Esdraelon,  the  hills 
of  Zebulon  and  Naphtali,  and  find  ourselves  at  the  ancient 
city  of  Laish,  thenceforward  to  bear  the  name  of  Dan,  and 
in  connection  with  Beersheba,  to  become  the  northern  and 


SOURCES   OF   THE  JORDAN.  189 

southern  landmarks  of  Palestine.  A  few  miles  west  of  the 
ancient  city  of  Hazor,  and  the  more  modern  city  of  Cesarea 
Philippi,  and  those  springs  of  Banaias  which  have  been  gen- 
erally celebrated  as  the  fountain  head  of  the  Jordan,  is  the 
hill  known  now  as  Tell  el  Kadi,  or  the  Mound  of  the  Judge, 
at  the  base  of  which  well  up  from  the  ground  immense  vol- 
umes of  water,  which  flows  away  in  a  brook  of  no  insio-nifi- 
cant  dimensions,  joining  the  one  which  runs  southward  from 
the  more  eastern  springs,  a  short  distance  north  of  Lake  el 
Huleh,  the  ancient  Waters  of  Merom.  Almost  overhanging 
both  of  these  profuse  and  never  failing  springs,  towers  the 
gigantic  and  snow-crowned  Hermon,  which  makes  the  natural 
northern  frontier  of  the  Holy  Land.  Close*  by  the  Hill  of 
the  Judge,  and  very  near  the  western  fountain-head  of  the 
Jordan,  stood  that  ancient  city  of  Laish,  which  at  the  time  of 
the  conquest  was  held  by  a  peaceful  and  prosperous  people, 
having  some  affiliation  with  Zidon  or  Sidon,  but  not  near 
enough  to  that  rich  and  powerful  city  to  be  of  special  ad- 
vantage in  case  of  an  invasion.  "  Quiet  and  secure  "  are  the 
terms  which  describe  the  condition  of  the  people  of  Laish. 
The  five  spies  who  went  northward  to  discover  a  fresh  field 
to  supply  the  wants  of  the  tribe  of  Dan,  discovered  this  city 
and  the  beautiful  country  in  the  neighborhood,  one  of  the 
loveliest  regions  in  all  Palestine.  Their  report  was  favorable, 
and  after  their  return  to  the  true  territory  of  Dan,  down  in 
its  little  sea-side  corner,  an  expedition  of  six  hundred  men 
was  organized  and  sent  northward  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
quering the  city  of  Laish.  The  result  was  immediately  and 
unequivocally  favorable ;  the  city  was  taken  at  the  point  of 
the  sword,  and  the  people  put  to  death.  The  name  was 
changed  to  Dan  in  commemoration  of  the  freedom  of  the 
tribe,  and  most  people,  in  view  of  the  proverb  from  "  Dan  to 
Beersheba,"  have  fallen  into  the  notion  that  the  true  tribal 
limits  of  Dan  lay  in  the  north  of  Palestine. 

Tristam,  the  most  recent  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the 
freshest  of  scientific  travelers  who  have  explored  the  Holy 


190  SOURCES   OF   THE   JORDAN. 

Land,  has  given  us  the  following  graphic  description  of  the 
region  conquered  and  settled  by  the  Danites  :*  "  A  ride  of 
three  miles  from  the  bridge  brought  us  to  Tell  Kadi,  the 
'Mound  of  the  Judge,'  which  thus  in  the  significance  of  its 
name  still  preserves  the  ancient  Dan  'Judge.'  On  the  higher 
part  of  the  mound,  to  the  south,  tradition  places  the  temple 
of  the  golden  calf,  and  ruined  foundations  can  still  be  traced. 
Nature's  gifts  are  here  poured  forth  in  lavish  profusion,  but 
man  has  deserted  it.  Yet  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  more 
lovely  situation  than  this,  where  the  'men  of  Laish  dwelt 
quiet  and  secure.'     'We  have  seen  the  land,  and  behold  it  is 

very  good a  place  where  there  is  no  want  of  any 

thing  that  is  in  the  earth'  (Jud.  xviii.  9,' 10).  At  the  edge 
of  the  wide  plain,  below  a  long  succession  of  olive-yards  and 
oak-glades  which  slope  down  from  Banias,  rises  an  artificial 
looking  mound  of  limestone  rock,  flat-topped,  eighty  feet  high, 
and  half  a  mile  in  diameter.  Its  western  side  is  covered  with 
an  almost  impenetrable  thicket  of  reeds,  oaks  and  oleanders, 
which  entirely  conceal  the  shapeless  ruins,  and  are  nurtured 
by  the  'lower  springs '  of  Jordan.  A  wonderful  fountain,  like 
a  large  bubbling  basin,  the  largest  spring  in  Sj^ria,  and  said  to 
be  the  largest  single  fountain  in  the  world,  where  the  drain- 
age of  the  southern  side  of  Hermon,  pent  up  between  a  soft 
and  a  hard  stratum,  seems  to  have  found  a  collective  exit. 
Full-grown  at  birth,  at  once  larger  than  the  Hasbany  which 
it  joins,  the  river  dashes  through  an  oleander  thicket." 

The  great  war  of  extermination  which  was  waged  against 
Benjamin  carries  us  to  the  uumediate  neighborhood  of  Jerusa- 
lem. Gibeah,  around  which  the  events  revolve,  was  a  place 
about  four  miles  north  of  the  ancient  Jebus,  now  Jerusalem, 
and  occupied  the  place,  in  all  probability,  where  now  stands 
the  Arab  village  known  as  Tuleil  el  Ful.  The  place  where  the 
leaders  of  the  tribes  were  summoned  to  take  counsel  respect- 
ing the  outrage  done  to  a  woman,  was  Mizpeh,  a  well-known 
and  frequently-repeated  biblical  name.     Most  travelers  and 

♦Tristam,  Land  of  Israel,  p.  585. 


I  'I' 


THE   WAR   AGAINST  BENJAMIN.  193 

wiiters  on  Hebrew  history  have  supposed  that  this  Mizpeh 
was  the  prominent  eminence  a  few  miles  north  of  Jerusalem, 
now  known  as  Neby  Samwil,  whence  is  had  the  most  exten- 
sive prospect  to  be  gained  in  all  southern  Palestine.  And 
without  much  doubt,  this  notable  eminence  which  almost  every 
tourist  of  our  day  ascends,  was  known  during  the  time  of  the 
kingdom  as  Mizpeh ;  but  the  Mizpeh  where  the  tribes  came 
together  to  discuss  what  should  be  done  in  regard  to  Benja- 
min, was  no  other,  in  my  judgment,  than  that  ancient  watch 
tower  on  one  of  the  easternmost  hills  of  the  Gilead  range, 
where  Jacob  parted  from  Laban,  where  Jephthah  entered  upon 
his  signal  service  of  deliverance,  and  which  was  the  one  spot 
most  hallowed  of  all.  Not  even  Gilgal  down  in  the  Jordan 
valley,  or  secluded  Shiloh  up  in  the  mountains  of  Ephraim, 
could  vie  with  Mizpeh,  beyond  the  river,  for  sacred  emi- 
nence. There  it  was,  I  cannot  help  thinking,  that  the  war- 
riors came  together  and  into  covenant  that  they  would  not 
return  to  their  homes  until  they  had  revenged  the  dreadful 
and  unparalleled  indignity  offered  to  the  Levites'  companion. 
It  is  true  the  other  Mizpeh  was  but  two  and  a  half  miles  west 
of  Gibeah,  but  even  that  does  not  appear  to  help  the  argu- 
ment. The  event  was  so  fearful,  the  crime  so  great,  that  a 
journey  to  the  place  where  it  was  thought  God  might  most 
surely  be  met,  was  not  thought  of ;  in  a  crisis  which  nearly 
involved  the  extermination  of  a  tribe,  distance  was  of  but  httle 
account. 

But  if  it  be  thought  open  to  question  whether  Mizpeh  was 
the  hight  east  of  the  Jordan  or  northward  of  Jerusalem,  there 
is  none  resting  upon  the  place  where  the  Benjamites  commit- 
ted their  act  of  dastardly  violence  and  lewdness,  and  where 
their  deed  was  avenged  upon  their  tribe.  Around  the  hill 
known  as  Tuleil  el  Ful,  or  the  "Hill  of  Beans,"  surged  that 
three  days'  battle,  where  the  odds  were  so  fearfully  against 
the  Benjamites,  but  where  in  the  first  two  days'  contest  they 
were  unequivocally  victorious.  Away  towards  the  north-east, 
at  the  right  of  the  dark  peak  of  Ophrah,  may  be  seen  the 


194 


GEOGRAPHICAL  SITES. 


whitish  conical  hill,  on  the  summit  of  which  the  remnant 
of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin  assembled,  as  a  last  resort ;  and  the 
Tillage  seen  there  in  our  time,  still  bears  the  name  Rimmon 
which  was  given  to  the  hill,  or  "rock  Rimmon"  in  that  early- 
day.  Away  across  the  Jordan,  among  the  heights  of  Gilead, 
was  that  city  of  Jabesh,  its  site  not  yet  ascertained  with  cer- 


EASTERN  WOMAN  WITH  VEIL. 
Illustrating  the  style  of  dress  which  doubtless  was  in  vogue  in  Ruth's  time.- 

tainty,  between  whose  inhabitants  and  the  tribe  of  Benjamin 
there  was  some  kind  of  understanding,  which  caused  the  for- 
mer to  absent  themselves  from  the  great  assembly  at  Mizpeh. 
Away  northward  amid  the  hills  of  Ephraim  was  the  secluded 
nest  of  Shiloh,  where  the  Benjamites  won  by  a  ruse  not  unlike 
that  once  resorted  to  at  Rome,  wives  to  restock,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  maidens  of  Jabesh-gilead,  the  almost  annihilated 
population  of  Benjamin. 


THE   PASTORAL  OF   RUTH. 


195 


The  beautiful  pastoral  of  Ruth  revolves  around  Bethlehem. 
There  in  that  rolling  country  a  few  miles  south  of  Jerusalem, 
we  see  the  simple  and  touching  procession  of  events  which 
even  then  made  Bethlehem  a  notable  place  in  Hebrew  history. 
Away  in  the  distance,  between  the  Dead  Sea  could  be  seen 
then  and  can  be  seen  now,  from  the  region  where  Boaz  lived, 
the  blue  line  of  the  Moabite  mountains  ;  so  little  known  to  us 
in  detail,  but  so  rich  for  this  one  precious  association,  that 

among  them  the  great- 
grandmother  of  Da- 
vid had  her  birth,  and 
that  she  there  drank 
in  that  rich,  soulful 
and  affectionate  na- 
ture which  makes  the 
book  that  bears  her 
name  so  peculiarly  de- 
lightful. Yet  the 
great  simplicity  of 
Ruth,  and  its  freedom 
from  geographical  al- 
lusions, makes  my  task 
a  mere  momentary 
one.  Not  far  from  the 
grave  of  Rachel,  and 
in  the  tribe  of  Judah, 
this  beautiful  woman 
lived  ;  and  she  whose 
descendants  were  to  populate  the  line  of  the  Messiah,  had  her 
home  in  that  same  town  of  Bethlehem  whose  name  is  now 
immortal. 

It  may  not  be  aside  from  the  purpose  of  these  pages  to  call 
attention  to  the  remarkable  manner  in  which  the  pastoral  life 
and  customs  presented  to  us  in  the  book  of  Ruth,  are  to  be 
seen  in  slightly  changed  form,  in  Palestine  at  the  present  day. 
The  gleaning  in  the  fields,  the  habit  of  the  owner  of  the  corn 


EASTERN  WOMAN  WITH  VEIL. 


PLOUGHING,  HOEING,    AND   SOWING. 


-  f 


Wheat-field  with  OLI^'ES. — (Surenhusitis.) 


■WOMEN   GRINDING    GRAIN    WITH    THE   HAND- 
MILL  OF  MODERN  SYRIA. — {Ayre.) 


ANCIENT  HOES. — ( Wilkinson.) 


Showing  how  the  "t**  n  wa^  p  it  i      ai  d  that  the  doors  a,  I 
were  inlepded  for  taking  it  out.-  •(  IVilHiuon.) 


ANCIENT   SALUTATIONS.  197 

to  sleep  on  the  threshing-floor  to  prevent  the  grain  being 
stolen,  the  parching  of  wheat  and  barley  ears,  the  subsequent 
beating-out  of  the  kernels  by  sticks,  and  the  dipping  of  them 
into  vinegar;  the  habit  still  prevalent  among  the  Jews  of 
Barbary  of  throwing  a  shoe  in  the  face,  and  found  even  with 
us  in  the  modified  form  of  casting  a  slipper  after  a  newly  mar- 
ried bride ;  the  bearing  of  grain  in  the  large  and  coarse  ori- 
ental veil ;  all  these  features  of  the  book  of  Ruth  are  still 
found.  So  too  is  the  transacting  of  all  important  business  in 
the  gate  of  the  city,  the  calling  in  of  the  elders  and  the  pass- 
ers by  as  witnesses,  the  dignified  and  courteous  salutations 
when  Boaz  and  the  simple  reapers  met  in  the  field.  In  the 
East  these  allusions  to  God,  on  meeting  and  parting,  are  much 
more  common  than  they  are  with  us.  With  us  the  good-by, 
a  contraction  for  "  God  be  with  you,"  is  about  the  only  phrase 
which  we  have  that  carries  us  back  to  the  words  of  the  He- 
brew dignitary  and  the  reapers,  "  Jehovah  be  with  you,"  and 
"Jehovah  bless  thee."  This  shows  us  not  the  inspiration,  but 
the  authenticity  of  the  book  of  Ruth.  Indeed,  the  whole  of 
that  beautiful  pastoral  breathes  the  spirit  of  the  East,  and 
brings  before  us,  in  the  most  marked  manner,  the  life  of  an- 
cient Palestine. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

SAMUEL  THE  PRINCELY. 

The  First  Book  of  Samuel  a  Real  Continuation  of  Judges — Samuel  a  True 
Member  of  the  Line  of  Men  who  Judged  Israel — Contrast  Between  Samson  and 
Samuel — The  Religious  Degeneracy  of  tiie  Hebrews — The  Profligacy  of  Eli's 
Sons  a  Symptom  of  the  Age — The  First  Battle  With  the  Philistines — Vic- 
tory at  Eben-ezer — The  Ark  and  its  Use  During  the  Battle — The  Death  of 
Hophni  and  Phinehas — Its  Eflfect  on  Eli — The  Ark  Passes  Into  the  Hands  of 
the  Philistines — They  get  Rid  of  It — Another  Battle  With  the  Pliilistines. 

B*^  phi  HE  first  book  of  Samuel  is  a  real  continuation  of 
B^  W&i  *^^  book  of  Judges,  although  it  no  sooner  opens 
^^J^^J  than  we  discover  that  we  are  entering  upon  a  new 
period,  that  there  is  a  craving  for  a  new  and  more  settled 
form  of  government;  and  that  the  people  will  not'  be  con- 
tent till  they,  like  the  nations  around  them,  have  a  king  to 
reign  over  them.  Yet  we  open  the  books  of  Samuel,  and 
find  ourselves  still  under  the  regime  of  the  Judges,  although 
in  Eli  first  and  then  in  Samuel,  the  character  of  Judge  is  con- 
siderably modified  by  the  priestly  and  prophetical  fimction. 
At  the  time  of  Samuel's  advent  we  are  about  eleven  hundred 
years  before  Christ,  fairly  entering  the  general  historical  period 
of  the  world.  Samuel  was  a  cotemporary  of  Samson,  and  in 
the  one  we  see  the  natural  counterpart  of  the  other.  In 
Samson  we  see  the  impersonation  of  the  highest  physical 
strength,  and  we  also  know  how  impotent  is  this  quality 
if  divorced  from  the  spirit  of  religion.  Samson  spends  a  life- 
time of  conquest  with  the  Philistines,  inflicting  some  annoy- 
ance upon  them,  but  no  real  loss ;  irritating  them  severely, 
but  never  weakening  them.  He  left  them  at  his  death,  just  as 
strong  as  ever,  and  just  as  determined  in  their  opposition  to 


SAMUEL  AND  SAMSON  CONTRASTED.         199 

Israel.  In  Samuel  we  see  the  triumph  of  prayer ;  like  Sam- 
son a  Nazarite  ;  both  wearing  unshorn  locks ;  both  abstemious 
so  far  as  strong  drink  is  concerned ;  both  given  to  the  Lord 
by  their  mothers ;  both  brought  into  personal  conflict  with 
the  PhiUstines ;  but  the  latter  full  of  power,  and  overcoming 
them,  and  making  good  the  words  uttered  by  his  mother  Han- 
nah in  her  beautiful  Magnificat,  "  by  strength  shall  no  man 
prevail." 

At  the  time  of  Samuel's  advent  it  is  very  clear  that  the  re- 
ligious degeneracy  of  the  Hebrews  had  touched  its  lowest 
point ;  the  rearing  of  such  sons  as  Hophni  and  Phinehas  in 
the  house  of  a  high  priest,  the  neglect  of  religious  service, 
the  abuse  of  the  rites  of  religion  by  the  servants  of  the  altar, 
all  show  that  the  old  heart  of  the  Hebrew's  faith  had  been 
eaten  out.  The  book  of  Judges  shows  failures  on  every  page  ; 
reveals  clearly  that  in  that  lawless  age  God  was  forgotten,  his 
tabernacle  neglected,  his  rites  scorned,  his  worship  abused. 
At  the  beginning  of  Samuel  we  see  that  the  cup  was  full,  and 
are  made  ready  to  hear  of  the  destruction  of  all  worship  at 
Shiloh,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Israelites  at  the  hand  of  the 
Philistines.  The  special  symptom  of  that  wicked  age,  is  the 
extreme  greed  and  profligacy  of  Eli's  sons.  Eli,  himself, 
seems  to  have  been  negatively  a  good  man,  that  is,  amiable, 
devout,  and  faithful  to  his  duties  within  the  tabernacle,  and 
yet  weak  and  indulgent.  His  sons  are  types  of  the  evils 
which  always  infest  a  corrupt  church,  and  their  two  sins,  the 
grasping  of  temporal  good  and  the  indulgence  of  unlawful 
passion,  still  remain  the  sins  of  every  degenerate  priesthood. 
Not  content  with  the  breast  and  shoulder  which  were  due  to 
the  priest,  they  plunged  a  three-pronged  fork  into  the  pot  and 
seized  what  they  could ;  and  breaking  over  the  rule  that  the 
fat  should  be  first  cut  off  from  raw  meat  and  off'ered  to  the 
Lord,  they  demanded  the  fat  for  themselves,  and  threatened 
to  take  it  even  by  force.  To  this  must  be  added  the  gross 
offence  of  committing  fornication  at  the  very  door  of  the 
tabernacle.     Such  things  could  only  be  permitted  in  an  age 


200  PHILISTINE  VICTORY   OVER   THE  ISRAELITES. 

of  great  wickedness, — an  age  in  which  Elkanah's  and  Han- 
nah's piety  was  altogether  exceptional. 

Subsequently  to  the  call  of  the  little  Samuel,  through  whose 
lips  the  doom  of  Eli's  house  was  to  be  pronounced,  occurred 
the  first  battle  with  the  Philistines  recorded  in  the  books 
which  bear  the  name  of  Samuel.  We  are  led  to  suppose  that 
this  battle  followed  in  strict  sequence  upon  the  death  of  Sam- 
son, and  was  the  outgrowth  of  the  anger  of  the  Philistines  at 
the  death  of  three  thousand  of  their  number.  They  collected 
their  army  and  marched  north-eastward  into  the  hill-country, 
halting  at  a  place  called  Aphek,  whose  location,  though  now 
unknown  to  us,  was  just  on  the  outermost  confines  of  Dan, 
and  near  the  spot  where  the  hUls  melt  into  the  Philistine  plain. 
The  Israelites  pitched  at  Eben-ezer,  a  place  afterward  to  be 
more  noted  than  it  was  then,  but  whose  precise  location  re- 
mains unknown  to  the  present  day.  The  result  of  the  con- 
flict was  disastrous  to  the  Israelites,  who  lost  four  thousand 
men.  So  signal  a  reverse  called  for  decisive  action.  The 
Hebrew  army  rallied,  and  thinking  that  the  presence  of  the 
ark  would  bring  unquestionable  success  to  them,  they  sent  up 
into  the  hill-country  of  Ephraim,  and  brought  it  down  from 
its  seclusion  at  Shiloh.  The  presence  of  the  sacred  article  on 
the  field  of  battle  was  made  known  by  a  portentous  shouting 
"  so  that  the  earth  rang  again."  The  Philistines  interpreted 
quite  correctly  the  reason  of  the  exultation,  and  were  sure 
that  the  time  had  now  come  for  a  decisive  battle.  "  Wo  unto 
us !  who  shall  deliver  us  out  of  the  hand  of  these  mighty  gods  ? 
These  are  the  gods  that  smote  the  Egyptians  with  all  the 
plagues  in  the  wilderness."  They  clearly  had  some  acquaint- 
ance with  Hebrew  history  although  their  notion  of  "  plagues 
in  the  wilderness"  was  a  little  mixed.  The  result  of  the 
second  battle  was  more  disastrous  to  the  Israelites  than  the 
first  had  been.  Not  only  were  they  beaten,  but  they  lost 
thirty  thousand  men  and  the  ark  of  God.  This  last  loss  was 
what  completed  the  dismay.  The  Scripture  narrative  gives 
us  a  beautifully  explicit  account  of  the  effect  of  this  event  on 


THE   ARK   FALLS   INTO   PHELISTLNE  BA.NDS.  201 

Eli.  His  sons  had  been  slain,  and  a  messenger  from  the  nim- 
ble race  of  Benjamin  had  run  from  the  battle-field  up  into  the 
hill-country  of  Ephraim,  and  onward  to  Shiloh.  Eli  was  sit- 
ting on  the  gate,  aged,  infirm,  but  still  most  anxious  to  hear 
the  news  of  the  battle.  The  messenger  brought  the  tidings 
that  there  had  been  a  battle  and  that  Israel  had  been  defeated. 
Eli  could  bear  up  under  that  and  was  ready  to  hear  on.  The 
young  man  told  him  that  his  sons  Hophni  and  Phinehas  had 
been  slain,  Eli  bore  even  that,  the  loss  of  his  own  children 
did  not  crush  him ;  there  remained  one  thing  more  to  hear, 
more  dreadful  still.  The  man  went  on  :  "  and  the  ark  of  God 
is  taken."  That  sentence  struck  the  fatal  blow.  "  Then 
burst  his  mighty  heart,"  and  gathering  up  his  mantle  he  fell 
backward  to  the  ground  and  killed  himself  in  the  fall. 

The  ark  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Philistines,  but  it 
proved  a  most  troublesome  and  fatal  guest.  Carried  first  to 
Ashdod  and  placed  in  the  temple  of  Dagon,  the  first  god  of 
that  city,  it  brought  the  reign  of  that  tutelary  divinity  to 
destruction.  Sent  thence  to  Gath,  as  too  dangerous  an  object 
to  be  harbored,  it  brought  upon  the  people  of  that  city  a  more 
grievous  trouble,  if  possible,  than  the  loss  of  their  god. 
An  incursion  of  mice  and  a  prevalence  of  boUs  followed,  and 
the  people  of  Gath  were  as  anxious  to  send  away  the  ark  as 
had  been  the  people  of  Ashdod.  Thence  it  was  carried  to 
Ekron,  a  city  near  the  Danite  frontier,  and  but  seven  miles 
away  from  the  border  town  of  Beth-shemeth.  The  lords  of 
the  Philistines  hit  upon  the  device  mentioned  in  the  Scrip- 
ture record,  and  the  two  cows,  harnessed  to  a  new  cart  on 
which  the  ark  was  placed,  left  their  young  behind  them,  con- 
trary to  the  instincts  of  nature,  and  took  the  road  running 
north-eastward,  "  lowing  as  they  went,"  till  they  reached  Beth- 
shemeth  two  miles  beyond  the  point  where  the  plain  ceased 
and  the  hills  commenced. 

The  great  outbreak  of  divine  wrath  on  the  people  assem- 
bled in  great  numbers  to  receive  the  ark  back,  is  to  be  inter- 
preted simply  in  the  light  of  the  extreme  familiary  implied  in 


GETTING   RID   OF   THE   ARK.  203 

H  looking  into  the  ark.  If  the  time  had  come  when  the  most 
sacred  emblem  of  religion  could  be  subjected  to  the  curiosity 
of  an  idle  multitude,  it  were  not^  strange  that  God  should 
renew  the  impressive  signs  of  his  being  which  he  had  showed 
when  the  chosen  people  entered  the  promised  land. 

I  Glad  to  be  rid  of  so  dangerous  an  object,  which  appeared 

to  them  to  bring  a  curse  to  friend  and  foe  alike,  they  allowed 
it  to  go  farther  up  into  the  hill-country,  and  to  be  deposited 
at  the  city  of  Kirjath-jearim,  the  present  Kurjet-el-enab,  a 
village  about  ten  miles  north-west  of  Jerusalem.  There  it 
remained  for  twenty  years,  long  wearisome  years,  as  we  plainly 
see.  "And  it  came  to  pass,  while  the  ark  abode  in  Kirjath- 
jearim  that  the  time  was  long." 

It  was  during  this  long  interval  that  a  third  battle  was 
fought  with  the  Philistines.  Samuel  had  begun  the  work  of 
reform,  and  led  the  way  zealously  by  the  puinty  of  his  own 
life,  and  the  solemn  attention  which  he  paid  to  the  duties  of  re- 
ligion. The  third  battle  was  fought  near  the  scene  of  the  first, 
and  resulted  in  a  decisive  victory.  Then  it  was  that  the  stone 
Eben-ezer  was  set  up,  a  name  of  memorial  not  only  then,  but 
down  even  to  our  time  a  name  indicative  of  the  favor  of  the 
Lord.  And  after  the  rout  of  the  Philistines,  Samuel  contin- 
ued to  prosecute  the  duties  of  a  judge,  passing  in  turn  to 
Bethel,  Gilgal  and  Mizpeh,  and  Ramah,  an  unknown  spot 
where  was  his  home.  By  this  time  Mizpeh,  which  in  the 
earlier  time  had  only  indicated  that  frontier  point  in  the  east- 
ern Gilead  hills  where  Jacob  and  Laban  parted,  and  where 
Jephthah  ratified  his  vow,  had  been  transfen-ed  to  a  conspic- 
uous height  a  little  north  of  Jerusalem,  and  which  is  identi- 
fied by  most  travelers  with  the  Neby  Samwil.  Respecting 
this  we  can  not  be  quite  certain :  yet  that  Mizpeh  was  in  that 
immediate  vicinity  is  almost  certain.  Of  the  situation  of  Ra- 
mah, Samuel's  home,  the  less  that  is  said  here  the  better. 
The  subject  is  enveloped  in  the  greatest  obscurity,  and  in  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge  regarding  Palestine,  we  can 
hardly  expect  to  ascertain  where  it  lay. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

FAILUHE  of  the  commonwealth— choice  of  a  king— SAUL. 

Moses'  Policy  Precluded  Forever  the  Establishing  of  a  King  Over  the  Jews — 
Yet  he  Feared  a  Degeneracy  which  should  sometime  Result  in  Having  a 
King — Provision  Made  to  This  End — Failure  of  the  Commonwealth — En- 
croachment of  the  Philistines  on  the  West — Of  Arab  Barbarians  on  the  East ' 
—No  Smith  in  Israel — All  Repairing  of  Tools  Done  by  the  Philistines- 
Feelings  of  Weakness — Saul's  Search  for  his  Asses — Geographical  Difficult- 
ies— Unsolved  Questions  of  Location — Across  the  Jordan  to  Jabesh-gilead — 
Its  Deliverance  —  Saul's  Wonderful  Alacrity  —  The  Battle  at  Michmash 
—Other  Advantages  which  Followed — The  Slaughter  of  Agag — The  Re- 
jection of  Saul. 

[HERE  is  not  the  slightest  question  that  the  idea  of 
the  Hebrew  Commonwealth,  as  it  lay  in  the  mind 
of  Moses,  precluded  forever  the  placing  of  a  king 
over  the  Jews.  The  whole  stress  of  his  injunctions  lay  upon 
the  keeping  up  of  a  personal  relation  between,  each  man  and 
his  God ;  and  the  state,  so  far  as  it  had  to  exist  as  an  institution 
in  and  of  itself,  was  to  be  without  any  head,  save  Jehovah 
alone.  Yet  he  did  recognize  the  probability,  that  when  the 
Jews  should  become  the  acknowledged  masters  of  Palestine, 
they  should  want  to  copy  the  ways  of  the  nations  around  them ; 
and  like  those  nations,  should  insist  on  having  a  king.  Moses 
closed  that  loop-hole,  and  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  Deu- 
teronomy he  laid  down,  once  for  all,  his  instructions  respect- 
ing the  choice  of  a  king,  in  case  the  nation  should  in  the  course 
of  time,  become  so  infatuated  as  to  desire  one.  He  was  to  be 
a  man  taken  from  the  Hebrews  themselves;  he  was  not  to 
encourage  the  importation  or  breeding  of  horses,  lest  his  peo- 
ple should  lose  their  simple,  bucolic  character,  and  cultivate 


NO   SMITH  IN  ISRAEL.  205 

the  manners  of  those  warlike  neighbors  of  theirs  who  used  the 
horse  as  a  prime  medium  of  carnage ;  he  also  enjoined  that 
the  king  should  not  take  a  plurality  of  wives,  nor  encourage 
.  the  importation  of  silver  and  gold.  How  strikingly  all  these 
provisions  were  set  at  naught  by  Solomon,  no  reader  will  need 
to  be  reminded ;  and  the  wisdom  of  Moses  in  making  these 
was  best  seen  when  Solomon's  fall  had  shown  to  what  evils  an 
oriental  despotism  is  always  exposed. 

But  at  the  close  of  the  epoch  of  the  judges,  nothing  is 
plainer  than  that  the  commonwealth  had  failed,  and  the  out- 
burst of  national  feeling  in  demanding  a  stronger  and  more 
secure  government  was  only  natural.  On  the  west  the  Phil- 
istines had  so  far  broken  over  the  old  lines  which  used  to 
bound  their  territory,  as  to  have  planted  themselves  not  only 
in  the  very  heart  of  the  hills  of  Benjamin,  but  also  in  the 
valley  of  the  Jordan ;  while  on  the  east  side  of  that  river  the 
wild,  and  powerful,  and  ferocious  tribes  were  meditating  in- 
vasion and  destruction.  The  Hebrew  nation  had  touched  its 
lowest  point.  "  There  was  no  smith  found  in  Israel ;  and 
when  the  people  wanted  their  very  garden  tools  repaired, 
they  were  forced  to  carry  them  to  the  Philistines  cities,  since 
their  enemy,  now  again  having  the  upper  hand,  would  not 
suffer  the  Hebrews  to  have  artisans,  lest  they  should  make 
weapons  for  the  people.  The  whole  Jewish  population  was 
unarmed.  In  case  of  war,  they  had  no  means  of  defence  save 
ox-goads  and  clubs,  and  were  utterly  unable  to  cope  with  the 
well-armed  and  well-disciplined  Philistines. 

All  these  causes  combined  made  the  people  feel  their  weak- 
ness, and  constrained  them  to  cry  out  for  a  king.  The  office 
had  been  almost  established  in  the  time  of  Gideon  and  Abim- 
elech,  but  the  time  was  not  ripe  then  ^  the  evils  and  weak- 
ness of  the  commonwealth  had  not  been  duly  felt,  and  no 
change  was  made  till  the  time  of  Samuel.  But  then  all  was 
ripe  for  a  change ;  and  the  strength  of  the  popular  demand 
can  be  measured  by  the  utter  want  of  effect  which  followed 
Samuel's  vivid  and  truthful  delineation  of  the  brutal  excesses 


206       SAMUEL'S   WARNING   AGAINST   HAVING   A   KING. 

committed  by  all  oriental  despots,  and  the  brutal  exactions 
which  they  made  upon  the  property  of  their  subjects.  "  And 
Samuel  told  all  the  words  of  the  Lord  unto  the  people  that 
asked  of  him  a  king.  And  he  said,  This  will  be  the  manner^ 
of  the  king  that  shall  reign  over  you:  He  will  take  your 
sons,  and  appoint  them  for  himself,  for  his  chariots,  and  to  be 
his  horsemen ;  and  some  shall  run  before  his  chariots.  And 
he  will  appoint  him  captains  over  thousands,  and  captains 
over  fifties ;  and  will  set  them  to  ear  his  ground,  and  to  reap 
his  harvest,  and  to  make  his  instruments  of  war,  and  instru- 
ments of  his  chariots.  And  he  will  take  your  daughters  to  be 
confectionaries,  and  to  be  cooks,  and  to  be  bakers.  And  he 
will  take  your  fields,  and  your  vineyards,  and  your  olive-yards, 
even  the  best  of  them,  and  give  them  to  his  servants.  Aiid 
he  will  take  the  tenth  of  your  seed,  and  of  your  vineyards, 
and  give  to  his  officers,  and  to  his  servants.  And  he  will  take 
your  men-servants,  and  your  maid-servants,  and  yoiu'  goodliest 
young  men,  and  your  asses,  and  put  them  to  his  work.  He 
will  take  the  tenth  of  your  sheep :  and  ye  shall  be  his  ser- 
vants. And  ye  shall  cry  out  in  that  day  because  of  your  king 
which  ye  shall  have  chosen  you ;  and  the  Lord  will  not  hear 
you  in  that  day.  Nevertheless,  the  people  refused  to  obey 
the  voice  of  Samuel ;  and  they  said,  nay ;  but  we  will  have  a 
king  over  us.  That  we  also  may  be  like  all  the  nations  ;  and 
that  our  king  may  judge  us,  and  go  out  before  us,  and  fight 
our  battles.  And  Samuel  heard  all  the  words  of  the  people, 
and  he  rehearsed  them  in  the  ears  of  the  Lord.  And  the  Lord 
said  to  Samuel,  hearken  unto  their  voice,  and  make  them  a 
king.  And  Samuel  said  unto  the  men  of  Israel,  go  ye  every 
man  unto  his  city."    (I.  Sam.  viii.  10-22.) 

The  search  of  Saul  for  his  asses  takes  us  over  a  tract  which 
we  must  conjecture,  for  as  we  do  not  know  the  situation  of 
Ramah,  Samuel's  home,  and  cannot  ascertain  with  certainty 
where  lay  Shalim  and  Shalisha,  it  is  idle  to  attempt  to  follow 
the  tall,  young  man  and  his  servant  as  they  wander  over  the 
country  in  search  of  the  missing  cattle.     This  is  almost  the 


EGYPTIAN  ASSES,  SADDLED— ANCIENT. 


EGYPTIAN  ASSES,  SADDLED-MODERN. 

The  Ass  was  the  only  beast  of  burden  which  was  in  general  use.     This  still 

remains  the  case. 


208  DIFFICULTY   OF  LOCATING  RAMAH. 

only  real  geographical  difficulty  which  we  encounter  in  the 
Bible :  elsewhere  we  have  data  which  guide  us,  but  here  we 
have  so  many  contradictions  that  our  investigations  are  baffled 
at  every  turn.  I  can  not  help  thinking,  however,  that  Ramah 
lay  near  Hebron,  as  both  Dr.  Wolcott  and  Mr.  Van  der  Velde 
have  conjectured,  and  that  the  region  over  which  the  search 
for  the  missing  army  was  prosecuted,  lay  between  the  hills  of 
Ephraim,  north  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  neighborhood  of  Heb- 
ron. But  the  matter  is  not  at  all  of  first  class  importance  ;  it 
is  a  secondary  matter,  and  were  all  difficulties  solved,  there 
would  be  no  special  light  thrown  thereby  on  any  difficulties 
of  the  Bible.  Were  this  the  place  for  a  learned  disquisition 
we  might  enter  upon  the  various  theories  which  have  been 
framed  respecting  the  location  of  Zuph,  Ramah,  Shalim  and 
Shalisha.  But  in  a  general  way  the  reader  can  see  the  course 
of  Saul  and  his  companions  first  southward  almost  to  the 
southern  confines  of  Palestine,  and  then  after  the  interview 
with  Samuel  and  the  service  of  anointing,  the  retracing  of  the 
way  past  the  tomb  of  Rachel,  which  is  still  to  be  seen 
near  the  line  of  Bethlehem,  and  back  to  the  home  of  Saul  a 
few  miles  north  of  Jerusalem. 

The  first  event  of  Saul's  reign  carries  us  across  the  Jordan 
to  Jabesh-gilead,  a  city  which  has  already  come  before  us  in 
connection  with  the  Benjamite  war  of  extermination.  Just 
what  connection  there  was  between  the  tribe  of  Benjamin  and 
that  trans-jordanic  city,  can  not  now  be  discovered,  but  it  is 
clear  that  there  was  some,  because  at  the  time  of  the  great 
gathering  at  Mizpeh,  to  punish  the  Benjamites  for  upholding 
the  sin  in  the  matter  of  the  Levite's  wife,  Jabesh-gilead  was, 
the  only  city  that  was  not  represented.  Here  in  the  time  of 
Saul  the  city  comes  into  view  again :  this  time  there  was  an 
army  of  fierce  Ammonite  Arabs  at  its  gates,  demanding  the 
surrender  of  the  city.  A  compact  was  entered  into  that  in 
case  the  people  of  Jabesh  should  not  have  succor  in  seven 
days  they  would  open  their  gates  and  submit  to  have  their 
right  eyes  put  out.     The  promptness  of  Saul  to  come  to  their 


13 


210  THE   BATTLE   OF   MICHMASH. 

rescue  must  always  be  set  to  the  credit  of  that  impulsive  chief- 
tain. Here  his  character  does  flash  out  for  an  instant  with  a 
beautiful  light.  There  have  been  few  things  in  all  mihtary 
history  like  the  rallying  of  forces  which  followed  Saul's  call, 
and  an  army  of  three  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  men  never 
came  together  in  less  time.  Their  rendezvous  was  at  Bezek, 
about  fourteen  miles  south-west  of  the  Succoth  ford  of  the  Jor- 
dan. Jabesh-gilead  lay  eight  or  ten  miles  from  the  Jordan, 
on  the  brink  of  a  ravine  which  ran  eastward  from  the  deep 
valley  of  the  river.  That  last  day's  march,  after  the  promise 
had  been  given,  "to-morrow  by  that  time  the  sun  be  hot"  he 
would  succor  them,  is  one  of  the  most  brilliant  day's  works  in 
all  the  records  of  quick  marches.  But  the  whole  world  knows 
that  he  reached  the  eagerly  expecting  city,  and  brought  the 
relief  which  they  needed.  This  act  was  never  forgotten. 
Long  afterward  the  people  of  that  city  stole  across  the  river, 
and  when  the  body  of  Saul  was  hanging  in  disgrace  on  the 
walls  of  Beth-shean,  they  bore  him  away  and  gave  him  de- 
cent burial,  and  not  only  so,  but  they  and  they  alone  gave  hos- 
pitable entertainment  to  the  descendants  of  Saul,  when  all 
others  neglected  and  despised  them. 

The  battle  at  Michmash  is  very  fully  told  in  the  Bible,  more 
so  even  than  many  others  which  really  have  more  intrinsic  in- 
terest. Yet  it  was  a  notable  contest,  and  in  it  the  character 
of  Saul  comes  very  clearly  to  the  light.  Like  so  many  other 
battles  which  have  already  passed  under  our  review,  this  one 
took  place  in  the  ravines  north  of  Jerusalem,  and  its  scene 
may  now  be  studied  with  much  ease'.  It  was  in  or  near  the 
same  wady  up  which  Joshua  advanced  from  Gilgal  to  the  re- 
lief of  Gibeon,  and  Gibeah  the  home  of  Saul,  was  but  a  few 
miles  east  of  the  city  which  Joshua  relieved.  The  great 
"Wady  Snweinit  in  one  of  its  subdivisions  narrows  into  a  gorge 
about  a  mile  wide,  on  the  south  side  of  which  was  Gibeah, 
where  were  Saul  and  Jonathan  his  son.  The  Philistines  had 
intrenched  themselves  at  Michmash,  across  the  ravine  and  in 
full  sight.     Between  the  two,  though  not  in  a  direct  line,  were 


THE   BATTLE  OF   MICHMASH.  211 

the  two  tooth-like  crags  Bozez  and  Seneh,  which  played  an 
important  part  at  the  opening  of  the  battle,  hiding  the  two 
Hebrew  warriors  as  they  issued  out  in  the  dim  twilight  of  the 
morning.  Standing  below  in  the  gorge  they  were  espied  by 
the  Philistines  aloft,  and  were  defied  in  language  which  to  our 
ears  seems  like  the  threats  of  boys  in  the  streets.  But  Jona- 
than and  his  armor  bearer  accepted  the  challenge,  and,  sure 
that  the  Philistines  were  afraid  to  venture  down  and  attack 
them,  they  slowly  crept  up  on  their  hands  and  knees.  The 
Phihstines  were  apprehensive  that  the  Hebrews  had  issued 
fi'om  the  holes  and  caves  where  they  were  skulking,  and  when 
Jonathan  and  his  companion  burst  upon  their  astonished  sight 
they  were  received,  not  as  if  two  men,  but  as  if  a  host.  The 
Philistines  were  thrown  into  instant  confusion,  and  Saul  who 
was  standing  in  Gibeah  about  a  mile  away,  and  passing  through 
the  gray  twilight  of  the  morning,  was  unable  to  make  out  the 
cause  of  the  movement  in  the  Pliilistine  camp.  But  detecting 
very  soon  the  absence  of  his  son  and  the  armor  bearer,  he 
divined  the  cause  at  once,  and  boldly  struck  across  the  ravine, 
followed  by  the  few  hundred  men  who  were  with  liim.  The 
Philistines  were  instantly  put  to  flight.  The  rout  was  com- 
plete ;  the  Israelites  followed  them  down  the  same  pass  over 
which  Joshua  drove  the  defeated  Canaanites,  the  descent  of 
Bethoron,  and  the  victory  was  so  complete  that  the  Philistines 
were  dislodged  and  compelled  to  fall  back  into  their  own  ter- 
ritory. 

This  decisive  advantage  was  followed  up  by  others,  not 
fully  recounted  in  the  Scriptures,  over  the  kings  of  Syria, 
Edom,  Moab  and  Ammon,  as  well  as  by  the  utter  overthrow 
of  the  Amalekites  who  occupied  the  desert  tract  just  south 
of  Palestine.  These  were  among  the  fiercest  of  all  the  wild 
Arab  tribes  in  the  region,  and  the  hostility  which  they  showed 
to  the  Jews  as  they  came  through  the  wilderness,  in  the  time  of 
Moses,  was  made  the  pretext  for  just  as  thorough  an  onslaught 
on  them  as  has  often  been  meditated  and  attempted  by  us,  on 
the  Indian  tribes  along  the  western  frontier.     In  the  story 


212 


THE   SLAUGHTER   OF   AGAG. 


Saul  seems  to  be  more  humane  than  Samuel  in  the  attempt  to 
spare  the  huge  barbarian  king,  but  inasmuch  as  almost  beyond 
question  his  clemency  was  exerted  simply  that  Agag  might 
grace  his  tri- 
umph, Sam- 
uel's wrath 
was  kindled, 
and  the  un- 
re  liab  1  e, 
impulsive, 
moody  king 
was  rejected 
by  Samuel 
as  unworthy 
to  wear  the 
crown  of  a 
great  nation. 
That  scene 
at  the  close  of 
the  fifteenth 
chapter  of 
first  Samuel 
is  one  of  the 
most  d  r  a- 
matic  in  the 
whole  Bible. 
Saul  fiercely 
rejected  by 
the  prophet, 
and  in  his 
despair  and 
disgrace, 
clinging   so 

to  Samuel's  mantle  as  to  tear  it  apart;  the  great  prophet 
causing  the  huge  Agag  to  approach,  who  coming  slowly  and 
tremblingly  near,  and  reading  his  certain  doom  in  the  stern 


WARRIOR  WITH  HELMET  AND  SHIELD, 


A  FENB  SCENE  FOR   A  PAINTER. 


213 


and  inexorable  features  of  Saul,  exclaiming,  "the  bitterness 
of  death  is  past;"  and  the  closing  act  in  which,  while  the 
gigantic  Saul  was  crouching  in  his  crushed  and  broken  pride, 
Samuel  hewed  the  great  Amalekite  chieftam  in  pieces  ;  aU  this 
is  worthy  of  commemoration  by  the  noblest  pencil  that  human 
skill  has  ever  wielded 


CHAPTER  XVI 

DAVID  AND  SAUL. 

The  Anointing  of  David — Not  Followed  by  his  Immediate  Accession  to  Power 
— David  had  a  Reputation  Even  in  His  Youth — The  Rare  Qualities  Which  a 
Shepherd  was  Compelled  to  Have — David's  Additional  Accomplishments — 
His  Exploits — The  Psalms  Written  During  his  Shepherd  Life — Saul's  Mad- 
ness— Similar  in  Character  to  That  of  Theodore  the  Late  Emperor  of  Abyssinia 
— The  Contest  With  Goliath — The  Geographical  Situation — The  Friendship 
With  Jonathan — David  Hunted  Before  Saul — The  Refuge  Places  Where  w(? 
Find  Him — He  Even  Seeks  Shelter  Among  the  Philistines — The  Cave  of 
Adullam — Moab — Retutn  to  his  Native  Heath — Keilah  and  its  Deliverance 
— Recent  Identifications  of  David's  Haunts — Physical  Character  of  Southern 
Palestine — David's  Wild,  Wretched,  Wander- Years — Grand  Attack  on  Saul — 
The  Philistines  at  Jezreel — The  Death  of  Saul  and  Jonathan. 

HE  rejection  of  Saul  was  followed  by  the  anointing 
of  David  as  King  :  and  yet  it  was  many  years 
before  the  former  ceased  to  be,  and  the  latter  began 
to  be,  the  actual  ruler.  The  selection  and  appointment  of  Da- 
vid was  for  some  time  kept  secret ;  it  is  doubtful  whether  even 
his  brethren  knew  of  it  ;  for  although  Samuel  caused  all  the 
sons  of  Jesse  to  pass  before  him,  the  youngest  was  in  all  proba- 
bility anointed,  as  Saul  had  been  before  him,  in  great  privacy. 
At  any  rate,  his  brothers  appear  not  to  have  known  for  some 
time  that  this  signal  honor  had  been  conferred  uj)on  David. 
And  yet  it  would  seem  that  the  youngest  of  that  family  was 
a  man  who  had  a  reputation  even  then ;  that  he  was  a  man 
known  not  only  in  Bethlehem  and  its  immediate  vicinity, 
but  throughout  the  land.  When  Saul  fell  into  his  attack 
of  madness,  and  some  minstrel  was  needed  to  minister  to 
him  and  soothe  his  dark  and  moody  spirit,  David  is  spoken 
of  as  if  well-known  for  his  skill  as  a  player,  and  as  a  man  of 


ANCIENT    HARPS. 
From  Nineveh  Marbles {jltfre.} 


ANCIENT  HARP. 

From  the  Tomb  at  Thebes,  called  Belzo- 
ni's — l»4yre.) 


ANCIENT  SIGNET  RINGS,   WITH  IMPRESSIONS      TAB "TIJIBREL"  OR  "  TABRET  "  OF   A.  T. 

FROM  THEM. (Fin.)  (Lane's  Modern  Eeyptiani.) 


ANCIENT   SHEEP-FOLD. 


216       THE  SHEPHERD  USUALLY  UNDERRATED. 

general  mark.  The  verse  in  which  his  gifts  are  described  set- 
tles this  matter,  and  makes  him  out  as  a  personage  of  note.  He 
is  recommended  as  "  cunning  in  playing,  a  mighty,  valiant  man, 
a  man  of  war,  prudent  in  matters,  and  a  comely  person."  By 
playing  is  meant  not  only  mechanical  skill  on  the  lute,  but  the 
art  of  minstrelsy  as  it  was  practised  by  David's  great  cotera- 
porary,  blind  old  Homer.  Besides  this,  to  be  a  shepherd  then, 
in  the  rocky  fastnesses  of  Judea  was  not  to  lead  that  simple, 
inoffensive  life  which  has  generally  thought  to  be  characteris- 
tic of  a  shepherd.  The  country  was  then  infested  with  bears 
and  lions,  and  it  required  great  vigilance  and  courage  to  keep 
them  off.  Besides,  the  wealth  of  the  people  in  those  days  lay 
in  their  cattle ;  and  David  was  in  reality  the  custodian  of  his 
father's  property,  and  in  general  trustfulness  took  precedence 
over  his  older  bretlu-en.  His  great  strength  and  capacity  as 
a  shepherd  are  well  attested  by  the  incident  which  he  related 
to  Saul :  "  Thy  servant  kejDt  his  father's  sheep,  and  there  came 
a  lion  and  a  bear  and  took  a  lamb  out  of  the  flock :  and  I 
went  out  after  him  and  smote  him,  and  dehvered  it  out  of  his 
mouth :  and  when  he  arose  against  me,  I  caught  him  by  the 
beard,  [mane],  and  smote  him  and  slew  him."  In  my  own 
mind  there  does  not  exist  the  faintest  doubt  that  David  was 
already  well-known  as  a  man  of  great  mark,  and  that  when 
the  necessity  arose  of  finding  a  man  who  should  be  worthy 
to  minister  to  the  diseased  mind  of  the  king,  David  was  at 
once  recognized  to  be  the  one.  In  this  case  the  divine  intima- 
tions made  to  Samuel  appear  to  have  exactly  coincided  with 
human  judgment,  and  here  as  so  often  in  the  Bible  divine 
sovereignty  and  human  freedom  seem  to  have  been  at  one. 

Of  David's  shepherd  life  we  really  know  but  little  ;  yet  in 
such  psalms  as  he  then  wrote,  the  eighth,  nineteenth,  twenty- 
ninth,  and  above  all  the  incomparable  twenty-third,  we  have 
a  clear  indication  that  his  minstrelsy  was  even  then  all  that  it 
was  when  an  older  and  a  wiser  man.  Indeed  the  songs  which 
were  "pressed  out  of"  him  during  those  wild  and  stormy  days 
of  his  youth,  when  he  was  hunted  down  by  Saul,  are  among 


saul's  madness.  217 

his  finest  efforts,  and  in  them  the  extremity  to  which  he  was 
di'iven,  brought  him  to  such  a  perfect  sense  of  dependence  on 
God,  as  to  cause  the  sweetest  and  noblest  things  he  ever  wrote 
to  take  the  form  which  they  wear. 

The  madness  into  which  Saul  fell  after  his  rejection  by  Sam- 
uel is  one  to  which  oriental  despots  have  always  been  pecul- 
iarly subject ;  all  men  placed  in  circumstances  where  their  will 
has  no  law,  their  temper  no  restraint,  almost  always  degener- 
ate into  moody  creatures  of  caprice,  and  then'  boundless  jeal- 
ousy, passion  and  turbulence  often  land  them  in  lunacy. 
Music  in  these  cases  is  almost  the  only  solace ;  and  even  in 
lunacy  as  it  exists  among  us,  music  is  the  best  alleviation. 
The  madness  of  Saul  was  very  like  that  to  which  Theodore, 
the  late  emperor  of  Abyssinia,  was  subject,  indeed  I  have  of- 
ten been  reminded  of  the  really  strong  likeness  which  exists 
between  the  two  men  in  more  respects  than  this.  Both  were 
the  semi-barbarian  princes  of  semi-barbarous  peoples ;  both 
were  men  of  talents,  will,  despotic  mind,  ungovernable 
temper,  ambition,  jealousy  and  dark,  morbid,  brooding  spirit ; 
and  in  the  hurling  of  javelins  at  David,  and  the  occasional 
flashes  of  sunshine  which  j^layed  over  the  sullen  fits  of  Saul's 
anger,  we  have  the  exact  image  of  the  outbreaks  of  Theodore's 
anger  at  the  English  captives,  and  the  intermittent  acts  of  kind- 
ness which  he  showed  them  at  times. 

With  David's  contest  with  Goliath  we  come  to  an  epoch  in 
the  history  of  the  shepherd  boy.  The  Philistines,  those  in- 
veterate enemies,  had  again  been  opening  hostilities,  and  were 
pressing  hard  on  the  western  frontier.  They  had  crept  up 
into  the  lulls  south-west  of  Bethlehem,  and  were  on  the  south- 
ern border  of  the  important  wady  then  known  as  Elah,  or  the 
Valley  of  the  Terebinth,  but  now  as  Wady  Sumt.  On  the 
southern  side  of  this  gorge  stood  the  cities  of  Shocoh  and 
Azekah,  the  former  of  which  still  bears  its  ancient  name  but 
shghtly  changed. 

Between  these  cities  was  the  Philistine  army,  how  well 
equipped  we  can  judge  from  the  full  details  given  us  respecting 


218  DAVID   HUNTED   BY   SAUL. 

the  elaborate  armor  worn  by  Goliath.  On  the  northern  side  of 
the  gorge  was  the  Hebrew  army,  doubtless  unarmed  and  most 
imperfectly  prepared  for  a  contest.  Down  in  the  gorge  be- 
tween was  where  the  single  combat  between  David  and  the 
nine-foot-high  giant,  took  place.  The  result  was  immediately 
decisive,  and  the  Philistine  army  fled  after  the  fall  of  their 
huge  champion,  straight  down  the  valley,  whose  general  course 
is  north-west,  to  the  cities  of  Gath  and  Ekron  on  the  Philis- 
tine plain.  It  was  after  that  battle  that,  according  to  Light- 
foot,  the  ninth  psalm  was  written. 

The  story  of  David  and  Jonathan's  friendship  needs  little 
comment  in  this  work ;  it  is  the  great  friendsliip  of  history. 
It  was  complicated  with  conditions  which  would  have  des- 
troyed any  compact  less  noble,  and  heroic,  and  tender,  but 
which  caused  this  to  be  cemented  all  the  closer.  The  Greek 
and  Roman  literatures  give  us  nothing  as  a  match  picture 
to  the  mutual  love  of  David  and  Jonathan ;  and  nothing  in 
modern  times  comes  near  it.  It  is,  in  one  word,  peerless. 
Beginning  in  warm  regard,  it  mounted,  after  they  became 
brothers-in-law,  up  to  the  most  wondrous  heights  of  self- 
denial,  and  of  heroic  devotion.  But  its  story  need  not  be 
told  here. 

We  come  now  to  the  painful  narrative  of  David's  wanderings 
when  hunted  like  a  partridge  by  Saul.  We  have  a  clear  pic- 
ture of  his  flight  by  night  when  aided  by  his  wife,  and  date 
from  that  epoch  the  eleventh  and  fifty-ninth  psalms.  We  get 
a  glimpse  of  him  at  Naioth,  near  Ramah,  where  Samuel  was 
living  in  company  with  a  colony  of  prophets,  but  we  see  him 
not  long  in  safety  there,  being  followed  thither  at  once  by  the 
crafty  Saul.  Flying  from  his  imperfect  shelter  with  the  great 
Prophet,  we  see  him  seeking  refuge  with  the  High  Priest  of 
the  nation,  the  cautious  Abimelech,  and  witness  the  hungry 
David,  reaching  Nob  on  the  Sabbath,  craving  to  have  the  cere- 
monial law  respecting  shew-bread  waived,  in  his  behalf,  that  he 
might  stay  his  fainting  strength.  Among  the  company  shel- 
tered there,  we  mark  the  sinister  eye  of  the  crafty  Edomite, 


DAVID   HUNTED   LIKE   A   PARTRIDGE.      '  219 

Doeg,  a  chief  servant  of  Saul,  and  we,  like  David,  feel  sure 
that  he  is  the  man  who  will  betray  the  young  refugee.  Nob, 
the  place  where  Abimelech  lived,  suiTounded  by  his  colony  of 
priests,  was  on  the  north-western  slope  of  the  Mount  of  Olives, 
in  full  sight  of  Jerusalem,  then  not  a  Jewish  city,  but  in  the 
possession  of  the  Jebusites.  Betrayed  by  Doeg,  a  heathen 
from  the  mountains  of  Idumea,  David  had  no  longer  a  friend 
in  his  own  country,  and  was  compelled  to  fly  to  a  foreign  land. 
His  choice  of  Gath  was  a  strange  one ;  we  can  hardly  see 
why  he  placed  himself  among  a  people  so  hostile  as  the  Phil- 
istines were ;  and  least  of  all,  why  he  selected  the  very  home 
of  Goliath.  But  he  did  so,  only  to  find  that  the  place  was  too 
hot  for  him,  and  that  he  must  shield  hhnself  fi'om  personal 
injury  by  taking  refuge  in  a  pretense  of  madness.  After  his 
escape  from  Gath  he  wrote  the  fifty-sixth  and  the  thirty-fourth 
psalms.  His  next  place  of  shelter  was  at  the  cave  of  Adullam, 
on  the  border  of  the  Philistine  territory  and  not  far  fi'om  Gath. 
The  legend  which  makes  AduUam  identical  with  the  cave  of 
Kheiretun,  south-east  of  Bethlehem,  dates  only  from  the  cru- 
sades. The  town  of  Adullam  was  south-west  of  Bethlehem, 
^nd  in  its  vicinity,  beyond  doubt,  was  the  cave  that  bore  the 
same  name.  There  it  was  that  David  assembled  his  four  hun- 
dred outlaws,  and  began  to  be  a  power  in  the  land.  It  was 
at  this  time  that  he  composed  the  one  hundi-ed  and  forty- 
second  psalm. 

Finding  the  quarters  too  hot  for  him,  even  in  that  limestone 
district,  where  caves  were  so  numerous,  he  crossed  over  into 
Moab,  and  lived  for  some  time  in  the  country  of  his  great- 
grandparents.  He  had  a  cordial  reception,  for  his  father'was 
grandson  of  Ruth,  and  doubtless  the  poor,  hunted,  youthful 
king  was  welcomed  for  Ruth's  sake.  Where  he  stayed  we 
know  not ;  only  that  it  was  at  INIizpeh,  a  "  high  place  whence 
there  was  doubtless  a  good  outlook  over  the  Dead  Sea  into 
the  mountains  of  Judah."  There  it  was  that  he  composed 
the  fifty-second,  one  hundred  and  ninth,  seventeenth,  one 
hundred  and  fortieth,  thirty-fifth,  and  sixty-fourth  psalms. 


220  SCENE  OP  HIS   WANDERINGS. 

We  know  not  why  David  returned  from  Moab  to  his  own 
native  hills,  but  apparently  his  love  of  home  was  too  strong 
for  his  prudence,  and  although  beyond  the  Dead  Sea  he  was 
safe,  yet  he  preferred  to  be  in  his  own  land,  even  at  risk  to 
himself,  rather  than  to  be  an  exile  in  the  land  of  his  great- 
grandparents.  We  find  him  next  at  Keilah,  relieving  a  gar- 
rison which  had  been  attacked  by  the  Philistines.  Here  his 
band  of  six  hundred  valiant  men  brought  immediate  relief, 
and  the  Philistines  were  dislodged.  Keilah,  the  city  thus  suc- 
cored, was  a  strong  fortress  town,  having  "gates  and  bars"  to 
defend  it,  and  was  a  place  of  some  note.  It  is  not  identified 
with  certainty,  although  there  is  a  place  of  ruins  bearing  the 
name  of  Kila  and  found  on  the  road  westward  from  Hebron 
down  into  the  Philistine  plain.  We  know  that  this  was  its 
general  situation,  and  that  it  was  on  or  near  the  Philistine 
frontier.  The  rescue  of  Keilah  by  David  was  attended  by  this 
sad  feature,  that  the  men  to  whom  he  thus  brought  relief  pro- 
posed to  surrender  him  into  the  hands  of  Saul.  The  poor 
man  had  a  most  unhappy  fate.  There  were  hardly  any  that 
remained  true  to  him.  The  people  of  Ziph,  among  whom  he 
next  took  refuge,  proved  treacherous,  and  he  was  compelled 
to  hide  himself  in  the  "wilderness"  outside  the  town.  It 
were  to  little  purpose  that  I  dwell  on  each  of  the  retreats  to 
which  David  fled.  They  were  after  this,  all  in  the  territory 
of  Judah,  with  the  exception  of  Gath,  where  he  found  refuge 
a  second  time.  Most  of  the  towns  mentioned  in  connection 
with  his  wanderings  are  well  known  to  us,  having  been  dis- 
covered by  Dr.  Robinson  and  other  recent  travelers.  Most  of 
theni  bear  their  ancient  names,  slightly  changed.  Carmel,  for 
example,  is  Karmul,  Engedi  is  Ainjidy,  Maon  is  Maan,  and 
Ziph  is  Zif.  The  towns  of  Maon,  Ziph  and  Carmel  display 
ruins  of  more  or  less  extent,  and  are  a  few  miles  south  of 
Hebron.  The  district  in  which  they  lie  is  tolerably  fertile, 
and  no  one  wonders  at  the  wealth  of  Nabal,  who  notes  the  ex- 
treme fertility  of  the  soil  in  all  tracts  where  water  abounds, 
and  where  the  ground  is  carefully  tilled.     But  the  wilderness 


THE   SECLUSION   OF  ENGEDI.  221 

lying  northward  and  north-eastward  is  sterile  and  desolate. 
Rough  hills,  dry  and  destitute  of  soU,  extend  away  in  the  dis- 
tance as  far  as  to  the  Dead  Sea,  and  although  wild  in  the  ex- 
treme, still  are  too  savage  to  be  called  romantic.  Very  rare 
among  them  are  tracts  of  any  beauty,  and  the  "charming  seclu- 
sion of  Engedi  (Ainjidy)  makes  almost  the  only  exception  to 
the  desolation  of  the  whole  scene.  This  wild  tract  reaches 
northward  nearly  as  far  as  Bethlehem,  and  was  doubtless 
crossed  and  recrossed  by  David  during  his  years  of  flight,  while 
hunted  as  a  partridge,  and  followed  by  Saul  with  his  tliree 
thousand  picked  men,  like  a  "  solitary  flea,"  leaping  from  rock 
to  rock.  The  psalms,  written  during  these  years,  display  the 
desperate  character  of  his  flight,  and  his  supreme  trust  in 
God.  They  are,  so  far  as  we  can  make  them  out,  the  thirty- 
first,  written  after  the  deliverance  of  KeUah,  the  fifty-fourth, 
written  while  in  the  wilderness  of  Ziph,  the  fifty-seventh,  fif- 
ty-eighth and  sixty-third  which  bear  the  marks  of  Engedi,  the 
fortieth,  eighteenth  and  one  hundred  and  forty -first  which  also 
are  closely  connected  with  this  time  of  persecution  and  wan- 
dering. 

Perhaps  it  is  the  seclusion  of  Engedi  which  more  than 
any  other  has  engaged  human  hearts,  at  this  most  inter- 
esting stage  in  David's  life.  The  place  is  one  of  no  little 
charm :  certainly  a  marked  exception  to  the  prevailing  steril- 
ity of  that  whole  region.  A  spring  breaks  from  the  ground 
many  feet  above  the  level  of  the  Dead  Sea  and  finds  its  way 
down  the  rocks  to  a  plain  about  one  thousand  feet  square, 
which  in  crossing  it  transforms  into  an  oasis  of  verdure,  and 
then  runs  down  the  almost  precipitous  shores  of  the  Dead 
Sea  in  an  irregular  line,  leaving  a  track  of  foliage  to  show  its 
course.  It  was  near  this  favorite  spot  that  the  cave  lay  where 
David  spared  Saul's  life,  and  not  far  away,  beyond  question, 
was  the  place  where  Saul  lay  and  slept  while  David  secretly 
approached  and  stole  the  spear  and  water-cruse  from  the  very 
side  of  the  slumbering  king. 

After  this  persecution  had  been  most-  wearisome,  David 


THE  VERDURE  OF  ENGEDl, 
Where  brooks  and  the  shade  of  trees  make  a  miniature  Paradise. 


THE   APPROACH   OF   THE   PHILISTINES.  223 

takes  his  large  body  of  men  and  again  goes  down  to  Gath  and 
proffers  his  services  to  Achish.  Before,  he  had  been  repelled, 
and  been  obliged  to  save  his  life  by  taking  refuge  in  the  guise 
of  madness.  But  now  he  is  received  as  an  ally.  Having 
been  so  long  persecuted  by  Saul,  it  was  supposed  that  he  would 
have  little  inducement  to  return  to  his  own  land,  and  having 
six  hundred  able-bodied  men  with  him,  he  might  be  a  valuable 
helper  in  time  of  war.  Achish,  the  king  of  Gath,  gave  him 
the  city  of  Zildag,  the  precise  situation  of  which  is  not  known, 
but  which  lay  south  of  Gath,  and  near  the  border  line  which 
divided  the  rich  territory  of  the  Philistines  from  the  desert. 
After  becoming  the  lord  of  this  city,  David  began  to  give  his 
men  something  to  do  by  waging  an  exterminating  war  upon 
the  barbarous  tribes  which  lived  toward  the  south.  How 
great  extenuation  may  be  urged  for  him  in  this  I  know  not : 
but  perhaps  as  much  as  for  us  in  our  Indian  policy.  Appar- 
ently these  savages  were  such  dangerous  foes  that  it  was 
thought  to  be  the  only  true  protection  to  society  to  be  rid  of 
them  altogether. 

While  David  was  engaged  in  his  wars  with  the  wild  Arabs 
of  the  south,  the  Philistines  were  meditating  a  grand  assault 
on  Saul,  and  at  length  they  moved  northward  accompanied 
by  David  and  his  six  hundred  men,  and  entered  the  plain  of 
Jezreel.  But  David  was  compelled  to  withdraw,  owing  to  the 
suspicion  of  most  of  the  Philistine  chiefs  that  he  would  desert 
on  the  field  of  battle  and  make  his  peace  with  Saul  by  going 
over  to  his  help.  It  was  just  at  tliat  juncture,  too,  that  David 
heard  of  the  capture  of  Ziklag  by  the  Amalekites ;  and  has- 
tening away  with  his  band,  he  soon  overtook  the  victorious 
Arabs,  rescued  his  two  wives,  regained  all  the  spoil,  and  re- 
turned to  his  own  city. 

The  Philistines  crossed  the  plain  of  Jezreel  and  pitched 
their  camp  on  the  southern  slope  of  Jebel  Duhy,  or  little 
Hermon,  as  it  is  often  called.  It  has  already  come  under  our 
view  in  connection  with  Gideon  the  great  Judge,  and  then  it 
bore  the  name,  "Hill  of  Moreh."    The  hills  of  Gilboa,  he 


224  SAUL  KCLIiED  AT*  GILBOA. 

south  of  this  eminence,  separated  from  it  by  a  tongue  of  the 
plain,  which  here  runs  down  to  the  Jordan  valley.  Between 
the  mount  on  which  the  Philistines  were  encamped,  and 
Tabor,  still  farther  north,  is  another  tongue  of  land,  connect- 
ing the  plain  of  Jezreel  with  the  Jordan  valley.  But  with 
this  one  we  have  now  nothing  to  do.  Saul  was  with  his  army  ^ 
on  the  heights  of  Gilboa,  a  low  wooded  range,  (though  bare 
in  our  time)  stretching  away  to  the  south-east  from  the  great 
plain.  The  king  could  easily  look  across  the  level  strip  at  the 
foot  of  Gilboa  and  see  the  Philistine  camp  on  the  south  face 
of  little  Hermon.  The  village  of  Endor  lay  on  this  slope, 
and  was  in  close  contiguity  to  the  Philistine  army.  Saul's 
midnight  visit  to  the  witch  was  therefore  filled  with  danger. 
The  village  where  this  woman  lived  still  remains,  wearing  the 
old  name,  slightly  changed.  The  next  day  the  fatal  battle 
took  place  between  the  Hebrew  and  Philistine  armies,  and 
Saul  and  his  three  sons  (including  Jonathan)  were  left  dead  on 
the  field  of  battle.  The  head  and  armor  of  the  tall  monarch 
were  sent  by  the  Philistines  down  to  their  own  cities,  and 
his  body  was  hung  upon  the  walls  of  Beth-shan,  a  city  in  the 
Jordan  valley.  The  visit  of  the  men  of  Jabesh-gilead  is  a 
touching  monument  of  the  affection  which  they  bore  to  Saul, 
and  the  gratitude  which  they  felt  to  him  for  the  act  of  kind- 
ness which  he  showed  them  at  the  commencement  of  his  reign. 
The  manner  in  which  David  received  the  intelligence  of  Saul's 
death  heightens,  if  possible,  our  admiration  of  the  man,  and 
there  fell  from  his  hps  then  that  grand  and  sweet  dirge,  than 
which  no  finer  funeral  strain  was  ever  penned. 


CHAPTER  XVIL. 

DAVID  AS  KING— CONQUEST  OF  JERUSALEM— ALLIANCE  WITH 

PHCENICIA. 

The  Career  and  Misfortunes  of  Saul's  Son — Site  of  Mahanaira — The  Princely 
Abner — A  State  of  Anarchy  and  Civil  War — David  at  Hebron — The  Region 
Around  that  City — The  Cliange  of  the  Capital — The  Natural  Seat  of  Got- 
ernment  was  at  Shechem — Zion — Millo — The  City  of  David — Insignificant 
Size  of  the  Jerusalem  of  that  Day — Great  War  with  the  Philistines — A 
Speedy  and  Brilliant  Campaign — David's  False  Policy  Regarding  Philistia — 
The  Alliance  with  the  Phoenicians  and  What  it  Meant — The  Northern  Tribes 
and  their  Relations  with  Pliceuicia — David's  Palace. 


HE  separation  between  the  kingdoms  of  Judah  and 


Israel,  which  is  usually  thought  to  be  introduced 
during  the  reigns  of  Rehoboam  and  Jeroboam, 
really  began  du-ectly  after  the  death  of  Saul.  His  son  Ishbosh- 
eth,  a  man  of  feeble  and  irresolute  nature,  immediately  as- 
sumed the  title  of  king,  and  established  his  capital  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Jordan,  at  Mahanaim,  among  the  hills  of  Gilead. 
The  whole  region  round  about  Jabesh-gilead  always  remained 
faithful  to  the  house  of  Saul ;  and  Mahanaim  could  not  have 
been  far  from  the  city  which  had  begged  for  the  body  of  the  dead 
king.  Ishbosheth  was  supported  by  the  princely  and  powerful 
Abner;  and  so  long  as  this  able  man  commanded  the  army, 
Saul's  son  was  in  secure  possession  of  the  throne.  Abner  swept 
over  the  whole  northern  part  of  Palestine  as  far  as  to  the  bor- 
ders of  Phoenicia ;  and  returning  victorious,  it  would  almost 
seem  as  if  there  were  no  question  about  the  continuance  of  the 
old  power  in  his  hand,  and  that  of  his  royal  master.  But  in  an 
unguarded  hour  Ishbosheth  insulted  the  high-spirited  Abner, 
who  at  once  deserted  him,  and  proposed  to  join  his  fortunes 
14 


226 


DAVID   KING   AT   HEBRON. 


to  those  of  King  David.  The  assassination  of  Abner  by  Joab, 
and  of  King  Ishbosheth  by  two  captains  of  his  own  army, 
brought  all  contention  to  an  end,  and  instantly  put  David  on 
the  throne  of  a  united  nation. 

The  confused  state  of  anarchy  and  civil  war  lasted  for  sev- 
eral years.  During  this  time  David  lived  at  Hebron,  the  na- 
tional capital  of  Judah,  and  the  most  sacred  spot  then  in  all  the 
land.  Here  was  the  cave  of  Machpelah ;  and  within  it  were 
the  bones  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  ;  and  the  place  where 
tiiey  were  buried  had  paramount  claims  to  be  taken  as  the 
capital.     Besides,  Hebron  was  in  a  fertile  region ;  the  vale  of 

__  Eshcol  was  hard  by,  and 

't  ^^^  the  adjacent  hills  were 

all  terraced  to  the  top 
and  cultivated  with  rare 
skill  and  patience.  It 
w^as  a  much  finer  capi- 
tal than  the  rocky  hight 
of  Mahanaim,  east  of 
the  Jordan,  which  Ish- 
bosheth had  chosen  ; 
and  in  the  peaceful 
Hebron,  David  reigned 
for  seven  years  and  six 
months.  It  was  in  He- 
bron that  Abner  was  killed  and  buried,  and  over  his  bier 
David  sung  that  brief  but  beautiful  dirge,  which  has  become 
immortal. 

The  change  which  transferred  David  from  being  king  of 
Judah  to  being  king  of  all  Israel,  made  it  evidently  necessary 
for  him  to  choose  a  new  capital.  Hebron  was  altogether  out 
of  the  question,  for  although  admirably  adapted  to  meet  the 
wants  of  the  minor,  southern  kingdom,  when  it  had  been 
merged  in  the  united  and  consolidated  nation,  it  was  much  too 
far  southward.  So  indeed  was  Jerusalem,  which  was  selected 
by  David  as  the  seat  of  government ;  and  had  he  gone  farther 


THE  SO-CALLED  GOLDEN  GATE  OF  JERU- 
SALEM. 


•228 


CAPTURE   OF   JERUSALEM. 


north,  and  taken  the  spot  which  of  all  others  was  the  best 
adapted  to  the  end  hi  view,  the  place  chosen  would  have  been 
no  other  than  the  fertile  vale  of  Shecheni.  Had  David  es- 
tablished his  capital  there,  the  whole  future  history  of  the 
country  would  doubtless  have  been  radically  different  from 
what  it  was. 

But  Jerusalem  had  certain  claims  to  attention.  It  was  a 
fortress,  even  then  in  the  possession  of  the  Jebusites,  and  con- 
sidered unconquerable.  Joshua  had  but  partially  taken  it,  and 
during  Khe  five  hundred  years  of  the  Judges,  it  was  a  much 


INTERIOR  OF  THE  GOLDEN  GATE. 

Front  a  view  by  Catherwood, 

coveted,  but  never  enjoyed  thing.  On  the  rocky  height  of 
Zion  the  Jebusite  stronghold  reared  its  head,  and  frowned  down 
defiance  on  all  who  assayed  to  capture  it.  It  was,  moreover,  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  conquered  country,  not  on  one  side,  as  was 
the  Philistine  plain  ;  and  no  wonder  that  David  desired  to  gain 
it.  The  Jebusite  stronghold  occupied  but  a  small  part  of  what 
we  are  accustomed  to  think  of  in  connection  with  the  name  Je- 
rusalem :  it  embraced  but  one  hill  out  of  the  four  on  which 
the  subsequent  city  was  to  stand:  Zion  alone  was  peopled 
then :  Moriah,  Acra  and  Bezetha  were  mere  eminences,  having 


230  FORTIFICATIONS   OF   JERUSALEM. 

little  to  give  them  eminence  or  character,  save  the  tradition 
that  on  Moriah,  Abraham  once  raised  an  altar  for  his  son 
Isaac.  The  hill  of  Zion  has  a  deep  natural  fosse  on  three 
sides:  the  Vale  of  Hinnom  on  the  south  and  east,  and  the 
Tyropoeon,  or  Valley  of  the  Cheesemongers,  which  intervened 
between  it  and  Moriah.  On  these  three  sides  it  was  consid- 
ered impregnable,  and  could  be  held  by  a  small  force.  On  the 
western  side  Zion  sloped  gently  away  to  the  shallow  vale  which 
lay  between  it  and  Acra,  the  gentle  elevation  on  which  now 
stands  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher :  and  this  side  was 
no  doubt  very  strongly  fortified.  The  word  Millo,  used  often 
in  connection  with  Zion  and  the  city  of  David,  I  consider  to 
mean  the  fortress,  or  strongly  fortified  wall  which  ran  across 
from  the  Tyropseon  to  the  Vale  of  Hinnom.  The  city  of  Da- 
vid was  therefore,  as  will  be  seen  at  a  glance,  of  very  insig- 
nificant dimensions,  and  embraced  but  a  small  part  of  the  Je- 
rusalem of  this  day.  It  was  rather  a  castle  than  a  town  or 
city,  and  was  chosen  rather  as  a  military  stronghold  than  as  a 
metropolis.  An  old  ruin  hke  Heidelburg,  which  once  con- 
tained space  enough  to  harbor  some  thousands  of  people,  can 
give  us  a  not  unworthy  idea  of  what  Zion  was  when  David 
conquered  it. 

After  the  young  king,  then  a  little  under  forty  years  of  age, 
had  gained  possession  of  the  Jebusite  tower,  the  Philistines 
made  a  great  bid  for  continued  sovereignty  over  Israel.  The 
taking  of  Jerusalem  must  have  been  a  complete  surprise  to 
them,  as  to  all  the  nation,  for  the  Jebusites  had  such  confidejice 
in  their  power  to  hold  the  hill  on  which  they  Hved,  as  to  ven- 
ture on  the  insolent  step  of  putting  blind  and  lame  men  on 
the  walls,  as  a  sufficient  garrison.  But  after  the  gallant  Joab 
had  climbed  the  rocky  hights  and  taken  the  place  by  storm, 
the  Philistines  swarmed  up  from  their  fruitful  plain,  bringing 
their  idols  with  them,  as  the  Israelites  had  once  carried  their 
ark  with  them,  when  they  ventured  down  into  the  Philistine's 
country.  Twice  the  Philistines  assayed  to  take  Mt.  Zion,  the 
new  "  City  of  David ; "  they  swarmed  over  the  valley  of  Rep- 


232  ONE  OF  David's  mistakes. 

haira,  a  locality  not  certainly  known  to  us,  and  twice  they 
were  repelled,  the  first  time  with  the  loss  of  their  gods,  and 
the  second  time,  completely  routed  and  broken  up.  All  at- 
tacks on  the  Philistines  previously  to  this  had  effected  but 
little  beyond  annoying  them ;  but  this  was  a  positive  and  de- 
cided victory.  And  yet  it  was  not  what  it  ought  to  have 
been.  Among  the  few  mistakes  which  we  can  see  were  com- 
mitted by  David  was  his  stopj)ing  as  he  did,  after  merely  driv- 
ing the  Philistines  back  to  their  own  fortress ;  he  ought  to 
have  then  marched  victoriously  into  their  cities,  and  reduced 
them  to  subjection,  and  utterly  broken  up  the  nation.  For 
Philistia  was  a  most  important  part  of  the  whole  land.  Ly- 
ing almost  contiguous  to  Egypt  as  it  did,  and  being  largely 
depended  upon  for  supplies  of  grain  when  Egyptian  monarchs 
marched  into  Asia  for  warlike  purposes,  it  was  a  matter  of 
real  military  necessity  for  the  Israelites  to  hold  that  fertile 
region.  We  shall  see  in  the  sequel,  when  weaker  men  than 
David  came  to  the  throne,  how  grievous  had  been  the  over- 
sight, in  suffering  the  Philistines  to  retain  a  slu'ed  of  their  old 
power. 

The  rise  of  David  is  indicated  by  no  surer  test  than  the 
alliance  which  the  Phoenicians  now  sought  with  him.  This 
nation  living  on  the  western  slopes  of  the  Lebanon  chain,  and 
on  the  contiguous  sea-shore,  was  one  of  the  most  powerful  in 
the  world.  Tyre  was  to  Palestine  much  more  than  Paris  is 
to  us  to-day ;  for  the  difference  between  French  art  and  polish 
and  our  own  is  not  so  wide  as  that  which  separated  the  rude 
people  of  Israel  from  their  opulent,  powerful,  and  civilized 
neighbors  on  the  north-west.  Tyre  and  Sidon  had  been  great 
cities  for  centuries,  and  had  unquestionably  begun  to  exert  a 
deep  influence  on  the  northern  tribes.  We  have  to  deal  so 
largely  with  events  which  cluster  around  Jerusalem  that  we 
fail  to  get  any  clear  and  full  insight  into  the  close  relation 
between  Asher,  Naphtali,  and  Zebulun,  and  the  Phcenician 
nation ;  but  we  can  clearly  see  that  a  growing  ease,  and 
luxury,  an  increasing  tendency  to  idolatry,  among  the  north- 


David's  palace.  233 

ern  tribes,  are  a  sure  indication  that  as  we  are  rapidly  becom- 
ing Europeanized,  so  the  northern  Israelites  were  rapidly- 
becoming  Phoinicianized.  From  Hiram  the  king  of  Tyre, 
came  by  way  of  Joppa,*the  cedars  of  Lebanon  for  a  palace 
to  be  built  on  Mt.  Zion ;  and  with  the  cedars  came  masons 
and  carpenters.  Such  artificers  were  unknown  in  Israel  then, 
they  had  to  come  from  abroad,  as  do  our  best  artists  in  almost 
all  departments.  What  kind  of  a  "  house,"  or  palace  David 
built  for  himself  we  can  not  tell ;  doubtless  very  simple  and 
insignificant,  compared  with  modern  palaces,  but  an  immense 
advance,  doubtless,  upon  the  rude  simplicity  of  former  days. 
But  David  has  now  taken  his  place  among  the  great  monarchs 
of  the  world.  He  has  swung  up  into  the  view  of  the  rulers 
of  mighty  empires,  as  Frederick  the  Great  did  when  he  began 
to  attract  to  himself  the  eyes  of  Europe  ;  he  is,  as  we  see  him 
now,  not  a  petty  prince  whose  name  was  unknown  even  in 
Egypt,  but  a  great  and  successful  ruler,  living  in  state,  pow- 
erful in  war,  and  more  powerful  in  the  arts  of  peace. 


CHAPTER  XVm. 

REMOVAL  OF  THE  ARK— MILITARY  CONQUESTS. 

The  Place  where  the  Ark  had  Lain  for  Twenty  Years — Its  Removal  to  Gibeah— 
The  Pomp  of  that  Removal — The  Twenty-fourth  Psalm — Tlie  Acme  of  David's 
Career — David's  Conquests — His  Eminence  as  a  Poet,  Contrasted  with  his 
Fame  as  a  Warrior — The  Extent  of  David's  Victories — Campaign  Against 
the  Philistines — Mistaken  Policy  Regarding  Tiiem — War  Against  Moab^ 
Improvement  on  the  Old  Carnage  of  Joshua's  Time — Wrong  to  Judge  the  Ethics 
of  the  Old  Testament  by  those  of  the  New — War  Against  the  King  of  Zobah 
— The  Riches  Gained  by  this  Campaign — The  Frontier  Lines  as  now  Drawn 
by  David — Master  now  of  nearly  all  the  "Promised  Land" — Petra  and  its 
Subjugation — Full  Description  of  Petra  from  Ritter — Subjugation  of  Ammon 
— Size  of  Palestine  Contrasted  with  that  of  Other  Great  Nations  of  that  Age. 

HE  next  step  in  his  career  indicates  the  leading  ten- 


dency of  David's  nature,  and  reveals  the  crowning 
act  of  his  life.  The  ark,  and  the  tabernacle,  and 
all  the  sacred  implements  of  worship  had  been  neglected  for 
many  years,  and  were  almost  forgotten.  For  twenty  years 
they  had  lain  in  the  city  of  Kirjath-jearim,  about  ten  miles 
north-west  of  Jerusalem ;  they  had  subsequently  been  removed 
to  Gibeah,  and  were  there  when  David  made  his  preparations 
to  remove  them  to  his  citadel.  The  pomp  of  that  removal  is 
very  sUghtly  hinted  at  in  the  narrative,  as  given  both  in  II. 
Samuel  and  in  I.  Chronicles  but  it  is  clear  that  it  was  the 
supreme  day  and  act  of  David's  whole  life.  The  psalms  which 
were  composed  for  that  occasion  are  among  the  grandest  in  the 
Bible.  Foremost  among  them  is  the  one  contained  in  I.  Chron- 
icles, xvii.,  and  the  noble  twenty-fourth  psalm.  We  need  not 
recount  here  the  ceremony  of  that  induction ;  the  concourse 
of  people,  the  players  on  instruments,  the  king  at  the  head, 
his  royal  mantle  laid  aside  lest  it  impede  his  movements,  and 


236  DAVID   AS   A   POET  AND   AS   A   WARRIOR. 

his  agile  body  given  with  perfect  enthusiasm  to  the  dance, 
which  in  that  day  as  now,  was  one  of  the  highest  of  rehgious 
exercises.  The  estabhshing  of  the  tabernacle  in  David's  city 
may  be  said  to  be  the  acme  of  his  career.  True  there  were 
great  triumphs  after  this  ;  but  the  next  step  was  a  disappoint- 
ment, for  his  desire  to  build  a  temple  to  his  God  was  refused 
him.  His  son  was  to  do  what  the  father  was  not  permitted 
to  do. 

We  can  in  this  place,  perhaps  better  than  elsewhere,  speak 
of  David's  conquests ;  of  those  military  campaigns  which  no 
doubt  were  the  best  token  of  his  greatness  in  the  age  in  which 
he  lived.  Doubtless  to  us,  and  to  all  who  shall  come  after  us, 
the  most  convincing  proof  of  David's  claim  to  be  all  that  the 
Jews  asserted  that  he  was,  must  rest  upon  the  wonderful  char- 
acter of  his  psalms ;  those  immortal  compositions  which  rose 
so  much  above  the  spirit  of  the  age  which  produced  them, 
that  we  can  only  account  for  them  by  granting  that  in  some 
special  and  peculiar  sense  they  were  "  inspired  "  by  the  spirit 
of  God.  Responding  as  they  do  to  the  religious  feeling  of 
man  in  every  land  and  in  every  age,  they  compel  us  to  admit 
their  transcendent  character ;  and  yet  to  the  men  who  lived 
in  David's  almost  barbarous  age,  the  surest  token  of  his  great- 
ness lay  in  his  remarkable  career  as  a  warrior. 
*  We  have  already  seen  some  tokens  of  his  military  skill  in 
his  quick  and  decisive  victory  over  the  rude  and  savage  Amal- 
ekites  south  of  Palestine,  as  well  as  in  his  single-handed  vic- 
tory over  the  huge  Goliath,  but  now  we  see  him  enter  upon 
a  large  field,  and  wage  war  with  far  more  powerful  enemies. 
Never  yet  had  Palestine  became  the  land  which  INIoses  and 
Abraham  had  looked  forward  to ;  that  great  domain  which 
they  had  descried  with  the  eye  of  faith,  and  which  was  to  ex- 
tend from  the  "  River  of  Egypt "  to  the  Euphrates,  had  never 
been  subdued  by  Joshua  or  by  any  of  the  Judges,  and  even 
the  rock  fortress  of  the  Jebusites,  had  only  yielded  to  the 
powerful  arm  of  David.  The  territory  of  the  Hebrews  was 
limited  to  a  mere  south-western  corner  of  the  domain  which 


HIS   MISTAKE   IN   SPARING   THE   PHn.ISTINES.  237 

had  been  promised  by  the  great  founders  of  their  nation  ;  and 
when  David  ascended  the  throne  of  Hebron,  it  seemed  as  if 
the  promised  history  of  the  people  was  to  be  a  failure.  And 
when  David  took  his  crown,  it  was  as  master  of  a  very  insig- 
nificant tract,  the  petty  realm  of  Judah  in  the  south  of  Pales- 
tine ;  and  when  at  last  Saul's  family  had  lost  its  power  and 
place,  and  David  had  become  the  master  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
whole  country  from  Dan  to  Beersheba,  it  was  but  a  little  part 
of  what  the  king  of  his  nation  had  a  right  to  expect.  He 
entered  upon  his  career  of  conquest,  therefore,  with  unques- 
tioning confidence  in  the  help  of  Jehovah.  He  felt  that  all 
the  nations  round  about  were  to  be  subdued  and  the  whole 
promised  tract  given  to  his  one  "  peculiar  people." 

His  wars  opened  with  a  speedy  campaign  against  the  Phil- 
istines, from  whom  he  took  their  stronghold  of  Gath,  the  old 
home  of  Goliath,  and  the  city  with  which  David  had  already 
become  so  familiar  in  the  days  of  Achish,  its  king.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  as  a  matter  of  human  policy  that  his  subjection  of 
the  Philistines  was  not  more  complete  than  it  was :  for  occu- 
pying the  rich  tract  between  the  mountain  land  and  Egypt, 
it  was  of  the  highest  moment  that  they  should  not  be  able  to 
give  their  corn  to  an  Egyptian  king  who  might  undertake  to 
invade  Palestine.  Had  David  made  their  country  his  in  the 
absolute  sense  of  the  word,  it  would  have  been  far  different 
for  his  descendants,  and  the  encroachments  of  Egypt  in  the 
time  of  Josiah  might  have  never  occurred.  But  this  he  did 
not  see,  and  contented  himself  with  merely  making  the  Phil- 
istines his  vassals.  And  this  not  because  he  was  not  equal  to 
the  occasion.  David  was  equal  to  any  work  he  ever  under- 
took, but  he  did  not  see  the  need  of  thoroughly  conquering 
Philistia,  and  throwing  the  people  of  his  own  nation  into  it 
in  such  a  way  as  to  reorganize  its  policy,  and  make  it  homo- 
geneous with  that  of  the  hill-country. 

He  next  turned  eastward  to  Moab.  What  alienation  had 
occurred  between  him  and  the  people  of  his  great-grandmother, 
the  beautiful  Ruth,  we  do  not  know.     We  saw  David,  at  the 


238  David's  great  clemency. 

time  of  his  flight  before  Saul,  taking  refuge  in  the  land  of 
Moab,  and  receiving  hospitable  entertainment  there,  but  why- 
he  returned  to  the  perils  of  his  own  country  is  left  unexplained 
in  the  sacred  record.  Still  there  appears  to  be  a  connection 
between  that  return  and  his  campaign  against  the  Moabites, 
which  was  so  short  and  decisive.  We  have  a  very  scanty  rec- 
ord of  it.  We  only  know  that  he  "smote  Moab,"  and  des- 
troyed two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  with  sword,  saving  only 
one-third  alive.  This  has  often,  and  perhaps  most  generally, 
been  cited  as  an  instance  of  brutal  cruelty ;  and  measured  by 
the  standard  of  our  age  it  may  perhaps  be  so  regarded,  but 
we  have  no  right  to  measure  David  by  any  other  standard 
than  his  own  age.  His  sparing  a  full  thii-d  alive  was  a  great 
improvement  on  the  old  Jewish  usage  with  regard  to  captives 
of  war,  whom  it  had  been  considered  right  to  put  to  death 
without  regard  to  age  or  sex.  In  the  time  of  David  we  see 
that  we  have  passed  beyond  the  cruelty  of  the  time  of  Joshua 
and  the  earlier  Judges.  Still  we  have  not  the  slightest  right 
to  judge  David  by  the  standard  of  our  time.  There  are  a 
great  many  people  in  our  time  who  persist  in  the  wrong  course 
of  judging  the  men  of  the  Old  Testament  by  the  ethics  of  the 
New:  of  supposing  that  they  to  whom  it  was  "counted  for 
righteousness  "  simply  to  apprehend  a  little  of  God's  will  and 
way,  and  follow  him  so  far  as  they  could  see,  can  by  any  pos- 
sibility be  supposed  to  have  been  illumined  by  the  clear  and 
powerful  light  which  Jesus  brought  into  the  world.  Worse 
than  idle  are  such  fancies ;  they  are  the  prolific  mother  of  in- 
fidelity, and  cause  thousands  to  doubt  about  the  truth  of  the 
Bible,  who  if  they  would  but  see  in  that  Book  a  progressive 
revelation,  very  dim  at  the  first,  very  full  at  the  last,  would 
find  the  Scriptures  a  great  help  instead  of  hindrance.  In  deal- 
ing, therefore,  with  David's  treatment  of  Moab,  we  are  not  to 
jump  at  the  hasty  conclusion  that  he  was  wonderfully  vindictive 
and  cruel,  but  that  he  was  wonderfully  lenient  and  merciful ; 
that  oriental  princes  in  his  place  have  always  pursued  the  cold- 
blooded policy  of  putting  all  prisoners  of  war  to  death,  and  that 


f 


DAVIDS   CONQUESTS.  239 

David's  sparing  a  full  third,  indicates  his  greater  magnanimity 
than  almost  all  other  potentates  who  have  been  in  his  position. 
After  conquering  Moab,  David  turned  his  course  far  to  the 
north,  and  waged  war  against  the  king  of  Zobah.  This  land 
is  not  known  to  us  in  all  its  boundaries,  but  it  probably  ex- 
tended from  the  northern  part  of  the  Lebanon  range,  thence, 
due  eastward  to  the  river  Euphrates.  Its  southern  boundary 
was  contiguous  to  the  city  of  Damascus ;  its  northern  boundary 
would  probably  touch  a  line  running  eastward  from  the  city 
of  Hamath.  That  it  was  an  important  kingdom,  is  indicated 
by  the  great  wealth  which  accrued  to  David  after  the  camj)aign. 
The  horses  which  were  gained  were  hamstrung,  and  thus 
rendered  useless,  David  reserving  just  enough  to  grace  his 
triumphal  return  to  Jerusalem.  The  conquest  of  Zobah 
made  him  master  of  all  the  territory  lying  between  Palestine 
and  the  Euphrates ;  and  as  his  victories  over  the  Philistines 
had  extended  his  domain  to  the  "  River  of  Egypt,"  this  later 
campaign  gave  him  for  his  eastern  frontier,  the  very  river 
which  had  been  promised  to  Abraham  and  Moses.  On  the 
south  the  natural  and  unchangeable  boundary  remained  what 
it  had  been  from  the  beginning,  the  limit  of  the  great  desert 
of  the  Peninsula.  On  only  one  side  now  did  there  remain  a 
work  to  be  done  to  complete  the  limits  originally  laid  out. 
This  was  on  the  north.  The  source  of  the  Jordan  at  the  base 
of  Hermon  was  now  the  northernmost  point  to  which  the 
actual  power  of  the  Israelites  advanced,  although  it  had  been 
promised  them  that  they  should  possess  the  territory  as  far 
northward  as  to  the  "  entering  in  of  Hamath."  This  included 
of  course  the  beautiful  and  fertile  valley  of  Ccele-Syria,  lying 
between  the  Lebanon  and  Anti-Lebanon  ranges,  and  having 
its  northern  limit  at  the  narrow  pass  where  the  ranges  ap- 
proach very  closely  to  each  other,  and  where  lay  the  city  of 
Hamath  on  the  banks  of  the  impetuous  Orontes.  This  of 
course  was  the  natural  termination  of  the  Coele-Syrian  valley, 
and  as  such  it  had  been  included  in  the  original  conception  of 
Palestine,  as  laid  down  by  Abraham  and  Moses.     The  king 


HIS   CAPTURE   OF   PETRA.  241 

of  this  tract  who  bore  the  name  of  Toi  did  not  wait  to  be 
subjugated  by  David's  armies,  but  entered  into  a  voluntary 
alliance,  or  rather  into  a  voluntary  estate  of  vassalage,  send- 
ing his  son  to  Jerusalem  with  valuable  presents  of  gold,  silver, 
and  brass.  This  made  David  the  real  master  of  the  whole 
"Promised  Land,"  with  the  exception  of  the  territory  of  Am- 
mon,  north  of  Moab.  Of  that  I  will  speak  presently,  touch- 
ing first,  however,  upon  a  conquest  in  the  far  south,  of  a  na- 
tion, remotely  allied  by  blood  to  the  IsraeUtes. 

The  descendants  of  the  red-haired  Esau  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  the  mountain  chain,  running  from  the  Dead  Sea  to  the 
eastern  arm  of  the  Red  Sea :  a  tract  very  broken,  romantic, 
picturesque,  and  almost  inaccessible.  The  capital  of  the  na- 
tion was  Petra,  "  the  strong  city,"  whose  wonderful  remains 
were  discovered  by  the  German-English  traveler  Burckhardt, 
early  in  the  present  century,  having  been  for  centuries  lost  to 
the  knowledge  of  mankind.  What  was  the  occasion  of  the 
war  with  Edom  we  do  not  know ;  whether  it  was  offensive  or 
defensive  is  disputed ;  but  at  any  rate  it  was  conducted  by  the 
implacable  Joab  with  really  savage  cruelty.  After  Petra  had 
been  stormed  and  taken,  the  Hebrew  general  spent  no  less 
than  six  months  in  putting  the  population  to  death,  and  was 
hardly  able  to  bury  the  people  as  fast  as  they  were  slain.  But 
cruel  as  was  this  campaign,  it  made  David  master  of  the  whole 
territory  down  to  the  Red  Sea,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  use 
which  Solomon  made  of  that  important  maritime  thoroughfare. 

So  much  interest  hovers  around  the  mysterious  mountains 
of  Edom,  and  the  wonderful  ruins  of  Petra,  that  I  feel  sure 
that  it  will  greatly  add  to  the  interest  and  value  of  this  work 
if  I  cite  here  some  pages  from  the  learned  and  exhaustive 
work  of  Carl  Ritter  on  Palestine  and  the  Sinaitic  Peninsula. 

"  Before  closing  this  account  of  the  Sinai  Peninsula,  it  is 
necessary  to  devote  some  pages  to  the  discussion  of  the  re- 
markable labjrrinth  of  tombs  in  Wadi  Musa,  whose  sculpture 
has  retained  so  much  of  its  ancient  freshness,  despite  the 
vandal  rudeness  to  which  it  has  been  subjected  during  the 
15 


242  WORKS   ON   PETRA. 

}ast  centuries.  And  yet  our  account  must  be  gathered  from 
the  narratives  of  travelers  who  have  been  compelled,  in  every 
instance  to  make  hasty  visits,  and  to  feel  constrained  on  every 
side  if  they  attempted  to  enter  into  a  thorough  investigation  of 
the  place.  It  is  true  the  city  has  been  visited  by  men  admira- 
bly skilled  in  the  art  of  observing,  and  it  is  only  to  be  won- 
dered that,  with  the  limited  time  at  their  disposal,  they  have 
succeeded  so  well  as  they  have  in  depicting  the  place  and  its 
monuments ;  and  yet  up  to  the  present  time  no  plan  has  been 
drawn  up  of  the  city,  no  topographical  survey  made,  and  no 
detailed  description  given  of  the  topography  of  the  region ; 
even  those  which  have  been  •given  us  contradict  each  other 
often,  or  are  highly  incomplete.  Yet  there  is  no  lack  of  artistic 
material  to  illustrate  the  remarkable  architecture  of  Petra.  Of 
these,  Laborde's  classic  work,  the  Voyage  de  V  Arahie  Petree^ 
is  one  of  the  most  celebrated ;  yet  it  is  in  a  manner  vitiated 
by  the  sacrifice  of  truth  to  artistic  effect.  In  all  that  relates 
to  architecture  and  to  the  surrounding  mountains,  Mr.  Rob- 
ert's work*  is  to  be  called  a  masterpiece,  uniting  tone  with 
beauty  to  a  very  high  degree ;  nor  are  Bartlett's  Sketches  f 
devoid  of  elegance,  or  incapable  of  affording  authentic  infor- 
mation regarding  the  scenery  of  Petra. 

And  yet,  while  we  must  confess  that,  since  Burckhardt's  dis- 
covery of  these  ruins,  very  much  has  been  done  towards  the 
work  of  exploring  them  and  ascertaining  their  character,  it 
must  be  acknowledged  that  much  still  remains  to  be  done. 
But  this  can  not  be  attempted  till  the  region  in  which  Petra 
lies  shall  be  brought  under  control,  and  the  wild  hordes  which 
make  it  so  dangerous  to  travelers  shall  be  reduced  to  subjec- 
tion. In  view  of  the  disturbed  state  of  the  region,  since  the 
time  of  its  discovery,  our  obligations  to  the  travelers  who  have 
penetrated  it  can  not  be  too  thankfully  expressed. 

Burckhardt^  was  only  able  to  reach  Petra  clad  in  rags,  and 

*  David  Roberts,  Views  in  the  Holy  Land,  London,  1842-6. 

t  W.  H.  Bartlett,  The  Christian  in  Palestine,  or  Scenes  of  Sacred  History;  with 
explanatory  descriptions  by  H.  Stebbing,  London.     jBurckhardt,  Travels^.  433. 


\ 


TRAVELERS    WHO   HAVE  VISITED   PETRA.  243 

could  make  a  stay  of  merely  twenty-four  hours  there,  exposed 
all  that  time  to  suspicion  if  he  made  any  inquiries,  or  mani- 
fested any  Curiosity.  Lahorde  *  remained  eight  days  in  Petra ; 
but  although  able  to  make  his  sketches  in  that  time,  he  was 
compelled  to  fly  before  he  felt  that  he  was  prepared  to  go. 
Bankes,  Irb}^,  and  Mangles  f  could  spend  but  two  days  there ; 
and  just  after  they  had  found  how  much  remained  to  be  dis- 
covered, they  Avere  compelled  to  leave  the  spot.  Lord  Lind- 
say:}: could  spend  but  a  few  hoiu^s  at  Petra,  for  fear  of  his  life ; 
Von  Schubert  did  not  dare  to  pass  twenty-four  hours  there, 
nor  did  Robinson  venture  to  tany  longer  tlian  a  day.  Lord 
Prudhoe  tarried  but  a  night  at  Wadi  Musa ;  Kinnear  and  Rob- 
erts spent  several  days  there,  but  were  repeatedly  robbed,  and 
compelled  to  Ry  sooner  than  they  wished. 

The  fear  of  incuiTing  the  vengeance  of  Mohammed  Ali  was 
for  a  long  time  powerful  in  keeping  the  savage  Arabs  of  this 
region  m  check ;  but  an  expedition  of  his  being  once  sent 
against  them,  proved  itself  utterly  unable  to  cope  with  them, 
and  withdrew,  leaving  them  masters  of  the  ground.  Each 
night  the  Arabs  came  out  from  their  hiding-places,  and  stole 
the  arms  and  the  valuables  of  the  Eg}^tians,  and  withdrew 
before  they  could  be  discovered.  Nor  was  it  possible  to  fol- 
low them  into  their  rock-bound  retreats.  The  result  was, 
that  the  Arabs  have  become  more  emboldened  than  ever, 
and  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  examining  Petra  have  been 
largely  increased.§ 

The  Entrance  to  Petra  from  the  East  hy  the  Wadi  es  Syk. 

Burckhardt,  the  discoverer  of  Petra,  entered  the  city  by  the 
eastern  route,  the  avenue  which  even  to  the  present  day  is 

*L.  de  Laborde,  Voy.  de  V Arabic  Pitree  p.  60. 

tlrby  and  Mangles,  Trav.  pp.  440  to  442. 

I  Lord  Lindsay,  Letters  pp.  30,  40  et  seq. 

§  Of  late  the  dangers  and  difficulties  have  so  much  increased,  that  within  the 
last  few  years  Stanley's  party  is  almost  the  only  one  which  has  reached  this  cel- 
ebrated place.  The  authorities  which  Ritter  quotes  remain  (with  Stanley's  qual- 
ifications,) the  only  authentic  guides  to  this  region. — Ed. 


244    THE  ENTRANCE  TO  PETRA  FROM  THE  EAST. 

the  most  imposing  feature  of  the  place.  Passing  the  source 
of  the  brook  which  watered  the  ancient  cajntal,  he  followed 
the  stream  as  it  winds  past  the  Arab  village  of  Eljy,  and 
soon  after  entered  the  Wadi  es  Syk.  Not  long  after  he  passed 
three  tombs  on  the  right,  and  one  on  the  left,  which  is  orna- 
mented with  four  slight  pyramids  or  obelisks.  These  are 
mentioned  by  Robinson.  Passing  on  through  the  ravine,  he 
was  surprised  at  discovering  a  fine  arch  held  by  Letronne  *  to 
be  the  remains  of  a  former  gate  to  the  city.  This  spanned 
the  whole  gorge,  and  greatly  impressed  Burckhardt  Avith  the 
elegance  which  it  displayed  in  its  construction,  and  the  ad- 
mirable manner  in  which  it  had  been  preserved.  Robinson 
was  able  to  examine  it  more  at  length  and  has  given  us 
some  details  regarding  it.  The  arch  spans  the  entire  gorge, 
and  at  each  extremity  is  decorated  with  pillars,  between 
which  are  niches  in  the  wall,  apparently  for  the  reception 
of  statues.  It  presents  the  appearance  of  a  triumphal  arch, 
according  to  both  Robinson  and  Laborde,f  and  forms  a  truly 
imposing  portal  to  the  wonders  of  Petra.  The  width  of  .the 
gorge  is  here  but  about  twelve  feet,  and  nowhere  through- 
out the  whole  avenue  is  it  more  than  three  or  four  times  that 
width.  From  the  arch  onwards  there  is  a  constant  succession 
of  inscriptions,  tombs,  niches,  and  traces  of  aqueducts,  once 
intended,  doubtless,  to  convey  the  waters  of  the  brook.  On 
both  sides  the  walls  rise  to  a  great  height,  ranging  from  eighty 
to  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet ;  yet  owing  to  the  narrowness 
of  the  gorge,  most  travelers  have  over-rated  the  altitude  of 
the  sides,  one  writer  having  gone  so  far  as  to  state  that  they 
are  a  thousand  feet  high.  Through  this  gorge  the  brook  flows, 
watering  a  thick  growth  of  oleanders  by  the  way,  while  wild 
figs  and  tamarisks  spring  from  clefts  in  the  walls,  and  ivy 
droops  in  graceful  festoons  from  the  cliffs.  The  winding  cleft, 
which  owes  its  origin  apparently  to  volcanic  action,  has  been 
widened  in  some  places,  and  beautified  everywhere  by  art,  and 

♦Letronne  in  Joum  des  Savans,  i.  p.,  534. 

i"Arc  de  Triomphe,"  Petra,  in  Voy  de  I' Arabia  pitrie. 


THE    VALLEY-ENTRANCE.  246 

has  become  one  of  the  most  romantic  and  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable rock-galleries  on  the  earth.  Aloft  the  wild  fig  trees 
can  be  seen  swayed  to  and  fro  by  the  wind,  while  below,  in 
the  deep  shade,  absolute  silence  reigns.* 

As  the  brook  which  runs  through  this  gorge  was  of  the  ut- 
most importance  to  the  welfare  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
this  ancient  Nabathaean  capital,  the  greatest  pains  were  taken 
to  regulate  and  direct  the  supply  of  water.  Its  bed  appears  to 
have  been  entirely  walled  up,  and  even  arched  over  for  a  part 
of  the  way,  in  order  to  make  the  approach  to  the  city  more 
stately,  and  at  the  same  time  more  convenient  for  the  crowds 
of  caravans  which  streamed  to  Petra  at  the  time  of  its  power 
and  pride.  Stone-walls  are  even  now  to  be  seen  not  only  in 
the  Sik  avenue,  but  after  the  city  has  been  reached,  which 
once  served  to  direct  the  course  of  the  stream,  and  to  break 
its  force.  Besides  this,  on  both  sides  of  the  gouge,  channels  f 
seem  to  have  been  cut  at  a  higher  level  than  the  true  bed,  to 
supply  the  place  with  water  at  all  seasons,  and  to  prevent  the 
absorption  of  water,  during  the  summer  season,  in  the  ground. 

All  the  varied  remains  which  decorate  the  place,  the  niches, 
the  polished  tablets,  the  excavations,  the  busts  and  mutilated 
statues,  the  traces  of  inscriptions — show  what  value  the  an- 
cient Nabathaean  capital  placed  upon  the  noble  and  unique 
avenue  through  which  it  is  approached.  It  is  no  matter  for 
wonder  that  the  Bedouins  ascribe  this  all  to  the  work  of  de- 
mons, and  believe  that  the  place  is  a  secret  repository  of  un- 
told treasures. 

After  forty  minutes'  walk  through  the  continually  changing 
scenes  of  this  wonderful  yet  beautiful  chasm,  for  whose  decor- 
ation, as  Roberts,  the  artist  remarks,  a  whole  race  of  scupl- 
tors  must  have  been  required,  and  after  passing  other  fissures 
which  lead  into  it,  which  have  not  yet  been  explored,  the  gorge 
deepens  still  more  than  before,  and  bends  sharply  towards  the 
north-west,  at  once  opening  upon  a  new  and  striking  scene. 

*  J.  Kinnear,  Cairo,  Petra,  etc.,  p.  139. 
tBurckhardt,  Trav.  p,  423. 


246  THE   KIIASNEH    OR    TREAStTRY. 

At  the  angle  and  confronting  the  grand  approach,  stands  the 
gorgeous  fayade  of  the  chief  structure  of  Petra — the  Khasneh, 
or  Treasury. 

All  travelers  agree  that  the  first  view  of  this  structure  is 
one  of  the  most  imposing  that  they  have  ever  seen ;  it  seems, 
appearing  in  this  wild  and  savage  desert,  like  the  work  of 
fairy  hands  alone ;  it  is  moreover,  perhaps  the  best  preserved 
work  that  has  come  down  to  us  from  antiquity.  Even  the 
careful  Robinson  does  not  hesitate  to  speak  as  strongly  as 
Lord  Lindsay,  and  to  declare  that  the  first  impression  was 
more  overpowering  to  him  than  all  that  he  had  seen  in  Rome, 
Athens,  or  Thebes ;  that  in  picturesqueness  of  situation,  fine- 
ness and  exactness  in  the  use  of  the  chisel,  elegance  and  sym- 
metry in  the  combination  of  the  parts,  and  harmony  in  the 
whole,  the  structure  is  unique  in  its  perfection,  even  if  there 
be  not  perfect  •purity  in  the  style  in  which  it  is  executed.  The 
beautiful  rosy  color  of  the  sandstone,  when  lighted  up  by  the 
rays  of  the  morning  sun,  all  unite  in  asserting,  contributes  no 
little  share  towards  the  general  effect  * ;  and  the  situation, 
Bankes,  a  most  competent  judge,  declares  to  be  the  finest 
conceivable.  Burckhardt,  pronounces  it  to  be  a  work  of  im- 
mense labor,  being  made  not  out  of  separate  blocks  of  stone, 
but  the  whole  structure,  from  the  apex  to  the  base,  being 
hewn  out  of  the  solid  sandstone  rock  of  which  it  forms  a  part. 
Owing  to  the  peculiar  dryness  of  the  climate,  it  has  under- 
gone the  least  possible  injury  from .  the  weather,  and  stands 
almost  as  perfect  as  when  it  came  from  the  hand  of  the  artist. 
Laborde  speaks  of  it  as  the  most  colossal  relief  existing,  in 
which  symmetry,  art,  and  elegance  are  united  in  the  most 
striking  contrast  with  the  surrounding  wildness  of  nature. 
It  stands  as  if  in  a  colossal  niche,  surmounted  so  perfectly  by 

*.The  reader  will  remember  that  Stanley  carefully,  yet  delicately,  tones  down 
what  the  older  travelers  have  written  regarding  the  colors  at  Petra.  He  admits 
their  gorgeousness,  though  he  protests  their  being  supposed  so  conspicuous  and 
glaring  as  they  have  been  too  often  represented.  It  is  possible  that  he  may  have 
gone  with  expectations  too  highly  raised,  the  earlier  visitors  not  enough  so,  and 
that  both  were  equally  surprised. — Ed. 


THE   ARCHITECTURE   OF   THE   TREASURY.  247 

the  overhanging  stone,  as  to  protect  it  entirely  from  the  action 
of  storms. 

Built  in  the  form  of  a  temple  facade,  and  with  a  front  rest- 
ing upon  four  columns,  all  upon  the  largest  and  most  admirable 
scale,  the  main  interior  apartment  is  a  room  merely  sixteen 
paces  square,  and  twenty-five  feet  high,  the  whole  being  ex- 
cavated out  of  the  solid  rock.  All  the  walls  are  smooth,  and 
destitute  of  ornament,  not  only  in  this  main  chamber,  but  in 
the  three  minor  ones,  which  lie  at  the  sides  and  farther  back, 
and  which,  as  they  are  lighted  only  from  the  front,  and  have 
but  a  single  entrance,  appear  to  have  been  used  as  tombs. 
In  the  two  side  rooms  which  flank  the  main  portal,  the  same 
naked  simplicity  prevails.  The  main  entrance  passes  beneath 
this  portal,  which  is  nobly  ornamented  on  the  exterior,  by  an 
ascent  of  five  high  steps  ;  and  the  facade  on  each  side  of  the 
pillars  of  the  portico  is  profusely  ornamented  with  figures 
whose  original  meaning  is  in  great  part  lost,  as  they  have  been 
injured  probably  by  Moslems.  Those  which  are  higher  up 
remain  almost  intact. 

The  four  main  pillars  of  the  front,  of  which  only  one  is 
broken,  are  each  three  feet  in  diameter,  and  rise  to  a  height 
of  thu'ty-five  feet,  terminating  in  fine  Corinthian  capitals. 
The  entu'e  front  rises  twice  as  high  as  the  pillars,  Burckliardt 
estimating  it  at  sixty-five  feet,  while  Robinson  set  it  at  a  hun- 
dred, and  Laborde  at  a  hundred  and  twenty.  Far  above  the 
lower  story  there  rises  a  second,  with  an  unbroken  achitrave 
which  rests  upon  pillars,  above  the  top  of  which  the  gables 
approach ;  and  the  whole  is  crowned  with  a  slender,  round, 
temple-like  tower,  closing  with  a  cupola  and  an  immense  stone 
urn.  All  the  niches,  and  the  walls  of  the  upper  portion  are 
filled  with  representations  of  female  figiu-es,  two  of  o^hich  are 
winged,  while  the  gable  end  is  decorated  with  Roman  eagles, 
more  or  less  mutilated.  The  urn  which  crowns  the  whole  is 
the  object  of  the  Bedouin's  greatest  greed,  and  it  has  been 
the  mark  of  countless  arrow-shots,  the  Arabs  believing  that 
in  tills  urn  Pharaoh  concealed  his  treasures,  (hence  the  name 


248  MYSTERIOUS   USES   OF   THE   BUILDINO. 

Khasneh  Faroun.)  It  has  not  been  broken,  however,  and 
every  Ai-ab  discharges  his  shot  at  it  and  turns  away  grum- 
bling about  the  great  giant  Faroun,  who  has  put  his  treasures 
beyond  reach.  To  cHnib  to  that  height  would  be  a  task  which 
not  even  Bedouins  would  dare  attempt. 

Travelers  have  perplexed  themselves  with  the  question 
why  this  structure  was  built,  and  what  purpose  it  subserved. 
Even  the  conjecture  that  it  was  a  place  of  sepulture  does  not 
satisfy  all  minds ;  for  it  is  in  striking  contrast  with  the  cata- 
combs of  Egypt,  whose  interior,  instead  of  being  left  naked 
and  desolate,  was  most  richly  adorned.  The  theory  has  been 
advanced  that  it  was  a  temple,  and  yet  Bankes  remarks  that 
none  of  the  figures  carved  upon  it  suggest  that  any  divine 
attributes  were  ascribed  to  them.  No  conjecture  has  been 
made  which  seems  tenable.  Nor  is  the  time  when  it  was  con- 
structed beyond  doubt.  Bankes  drew  the  conclusion  from 
the  Roman  eagles,  and  the  general  style  of  the  architecture, 
that  it  dates  from  the  epoch  of  Trajan,  whose  taste  ran  so 
strongly  in  tliis  direction.  Schubert  thought  that  it  was  built 
even  subsequently  to  that  epoch,  and  concluded  that  it  was 
left  in  an  incomplete  state.  Roberts,  whose  judgment  is  very 
valuable,  does  not  pronounce  upon  the  date  of  the  structure, 
but  thinks  that  it  was  a  comparatively  small  object  to  care  for 
the  interior;  that  the  whole  researches  of  the  artist  were 
called  mto  requisition  to  give  the  exterior  an  imposing  effect, 
and  to  this  everything  else  is  sacrificed.  Roberts  pays  the 
strongest  tribute  to  the  purity  of  the  style,  the  elegance  and 
symmetry  of  the  facade,  and  beauty  of  the  coloring,  yet  not 
even  he  is  able  to  conjecture  satisfactorily  what  purpose  the 
whole  was  intended  to  serve. 

A  broad  area  before  the  Khasneh,  fifty  paces  wide  and 
three  times  as  broad,  ends  at  the  south  in  a  steep  crag :  north- 
ward, it  opens  out  into  a  still  broader  fissure,  which  extends 
on  for  several  hundred  paces,  with  tombs  on  both  sides.  On 
the  left  the  rock  amphitheater  comes  suddenly  into  view,  its 
seats  and  arena  being  in  a  perfect  state  of  preservation.     It  is 


THE  TOMBS   OF  PETRA.  249 

only  after  reaching  that  spot  that  there  is  a  full  prospect  over 
the  whole  city,  with  its  thousands  of  tombs.  In  many  places 
they  rise  one  above  another  from  the  bottom  to  the  very  top  of 
the  cliffs,  and  the  highest  and  smallest  ones  look  not  unlike 
the  houses  of  swallows  and  doves.  They  may  be  seen  every- 
where ;  *  not  only  in  the  main  fissure  where  the  city  proper 
is,  but  in  all  the  subordinate  wadis  or  seams  which  enter  the 
main  one  on  every  side.  The  Syk  is  but  one  out  of  many 
approaches,  although  the  largest,  the  most  profusely  decorated, 
and  the  most  imposing.  They  show,  although  but  few  of  them 
have  as  yet  been  explored,  that  the  population  of  Petra  must 
have  been  very  large. 

Bvu'ckhardt  noticed  that  the  tombs  on  the  way  from  the 
Khasneh  to  the  amphitheater,  on  both  sides  of  the  gorge,  were 
generally  high  facades  with  a  flat  roof,  but  sometimes  attain- 
ing a  collossal  size.  They  often  have  several  small,  and  some- 
times tolerably  large,  inner  apartments,  like  the  Khasneh ; 
but  in  all  cases,  as  there,  these  rooms  are  naked  and  devoid 
of  all  ornament.  They  could,  he  thinks,  have  served  no  other 
purpose  than  the  reception  of  the  dead.  In  one  he  counted 
twelve  of  these  rooms,  seemingly  the  possession  of  a  numer- 
ous family.  Many  of  the  more  simple  tombs  present  the  ap- 
pearance of  truncated  pyramids,  with  two  pilasters  at  the 
side,  and  with  the  entrance  in  the  middle,  reminding  •  one  of 
the  Palmyra  tombs ;  yet  differing  from  them  in  this  respect, 
that  at  Petra  they  are  cut  from  the  primitive  rock,  while  at 
PalmjTa  they  are  made  of  sej)arate  stones.  This  is  due  to  the 
natiu*e  of  the  place,  and  finds  its  parallel  in  the  sandstone 
structures  of  Egypt,  some  of  the  marble  ones  of  Greece,  as 
well  as  some  in  India,  which  are  hewn  out  of  a  single  rock, 
Where  the  cliffs  are  high  enough  to  permit  it,  these  tombs  rise 
one  above  another,  as  I  have  already  remarked.  The  open- 
ings to  them  are  generally  filled  with  sand  and  rubbish,  and 

♦Stanley  says,  however,  that  in  the  most  populous  part  that  he  could  select, 
he  could  numlier  up  in  one  view  no  more  than  fifty,  and  generally  much  fewer. 
Yet  he  admits  that  the  aggregate  number  is  very  large, —Ed. 


250  THE   THEATER   OF    PETRA. 

very  few  have  as  yet  been  examined.  The  variety  in  the 
forms  of  the  tombs  is  very  great,  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  has 
been  necessary  to  adapt  them  to  the  peculiarities  of  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  rock  where  they  have  been  excavated ;  indeed, 
it  has  been  said  that  no  two  can  be  found  which  are  precisely 
alike.  It  is  impossible,  therefore,  to  speak  of  a  common  ar- 
chitectural style,  although  the  whole  can  be  summed  up  as 
one  great  Necropolis. 

The  theater,  wholly  hewn  out  of  rock,*  has  thirty-three 
rows  of  benches,  each  one  of  which  is  capable  of  accommo- 
dating a  hundred  persons.  This  makes  the  entire  capacity  to 
have  been  about  three  thousand  sittings.  It  does  not  differ 
from  other  works  of  the  same  class,  excepting  in  this,  that 
above  the  uppermost  rows  of  seats,  and  in  the  cliffs  on 
both  sides,  there  are  the  same  tombs  which  fill  the  remamder 
of  the  valley.  The  place  built  for  mirth  is  brought  into  the 
closest  proximity  with  the  high  places  of  death,  and  thoughts 
of  sport  alternated  with  those  of  eternity.  The  eye  of  the 
spectator  wandered  from  the  scene  where  pleasure  presided, 
to  those  which  testified  of  grief;  and  never  has  there  been 
known  a  place  where  such  a  contrast  as  this  has  been  dis- 
played, for  even  Paris  places  the  burial-places  of  her  dead 
without  her  walls,  and  other  places  have  made  them  the  com- 
panions of  churches.  The  decoration  of  these  tombs,  as  well 
as  of  the  others,  indicates  the  prominent  part  which  vanity 
played  at  Petra,  as  well  as  at  other  places.  It  is  impossible 
to  assign  any  authentic  date  to  the  construction  of  the  theater. 
It  may  be  a  monument  of  the  time  of  Hadrian,  or,  as  some 
think,  still  more  recent ;  but  whenever  it  was  constructed,  it 
is  a  work  which  contrasts  strongly  in  respect  of  size  with  the 
titanic  vastness  of  the  objects  around  it.  So  grand  is  the 
scale  of  all  the  objects  around,  so  peculiar  the  architecture, 
and  so  rich  the  colors  displayed  on  every  hand,  that  the 
theater  sinks  into  insignificance.  In  the  diversity  of  archi- 
tectural forms  which  are  found,  there  are  the  representatives 

*  Von  Schubert,  ii.  p.  428. 


SCRIPTURE   ALLUSIONS    OF   PETRA.  253 

of  all  ages,  and  artists  of  all  tendencies  appear  to  have  free 
scope  to  work  out  their  various  fancies.  Here  are  found 
traces  of  the  ancient  architecture  of  the  place  which  is  re- 
ferred to  by  Jeremiah  (xlix.  16) :  '  Thy  terribleuess  hath  de- 
ceived thee,  and  the  pride  of  thy  heart,  O  thou  that  dwellest 
in  the  clefts  of  the  rock,  that  holdest  the  hight  of  the  hill ; 
though  thou  shouldest  make  thy  nest  as  high  as  the  eagle,  I 
will  bring  thee  down  fi'om  thence,  saith  the  Lord.  Also  Edom 
shall  be  a  desolation ; '  and  by  Obadiah  (3  and  4)  :  '  The 
pride  of  thine  heart  hath  deceived  thee,  though  thou  dwellest 
in  the  clefts  of  the  rock,  whose  habitation  is  high ;  that  saith 
in  his  heart,  Who  shall  bring  me  down  to  the  ground  ? '  and 
from  that  time,  down  to  the  epoch  when  the  commerce  of  the 
Nabathaeans  with  Babjdon,  Tadmor,  Egypt,  and  the  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean,  introduced  the  Egyptian  pyramidal,  and  the 
Syrian  styles,  as  well  as  those  of  Greece  and  Rome.  Taste^ 
less  though  grandiose  tombs  are  to  be  seen  there,  which  owe 
their  origin  to  the  epoch  between  Hadrian  and  Antonius ; 
and  even  the  rise  of  Christianity  finds  its  witness  there,  some 
of  the  ancient  halls  having  evidently  been  transformed  into 
churches.  All  these  things  bear  witness  to  the  influence  of 
many  different  nations  upon  this  rich  and  commercial  Nabath- 
sean  people,  which  reached  out  its  arms  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

The  broad  space  which  comes  into  view  when  one  has  ad- 
vanced as  far  as  the  amphitheater,  is  not  a  true  valley,  as  Pliny 
termed  it,  nor  a  plain,  as  Strabo  asserted,  but  a  deep  rolling 
tract  shut  in  by  the  crags,  and  with  two  prominent  knolls  or 
hills,  occuj)ying  the  central  part.  These  hills  were  once  cov- 
ered with  edifices,  as  the  immense  masses  of  rubbish,  and  hewn 
stones  of  every  size  and  form,  still  show.  Here  was  unques- 
tionably the  city  of  the  living^  surrounded  on  every  side  by  the 
city  of  the  dead. 

The  brook  continues  its  north-westerly  course  through  this 
rolling  tract,  and  between  these  hills,  here  and  there  disap- 
pearing beneath  the  rubbish,  and  then  appearing  anon.  For 
a  considerable  part  of  the  way,  this  brook  appears  to  have 


254  ARCHITECTURAL   REMAINS. 

been  arched  over,  as  at  Philadelphia  and  other  cities.  Robin- 
son discovered  several  remains  of  bridges  which  once  passed* 
over  it,  and  traces  of  paved  paths  or  roads  which  once  ran 
along  its  side.  In  the  low  grounds  upon  the  left  bank  of  this 
stream,  ruins  are  still  to  be  seeUj  which  appear  to  have  once 
belonged  to  the  most  important  building  in  Petra.  These 
ruins  are  sufficient  to  show  that  the  opulence  of  this  old  Na- 
bathaian  capital  did  not  consist  solely  in  magnificently  deco- 
rating the  abodes  of  its  dead.  Laborde  has  given  among  his 
thirty  beautiful  views  of  the  architectural  remains  of  Petra, 
four  of  those  which  are  found  in  this  spot,  two  of  which  he 
conceived  to  have  been  a  temple,  and  two  others  a  triumphal 
arch.  Their  exact  purpose  is  not  known  with  certainty  ;  yet 
the  richness  of  their  decorations,  although  belonging  to  a  late 
and  sunken  period  of  art,  reminds  one  of  the  splended  struc- 
tures of  Palmyra  and  Baalbec.  Their  pillars,  portals,  tri- 
glyphs,  friezes,  and  festoons  of  flowers,  are  like  those  wrought 
in  the  Syrian  Decapolis  in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries.  The 
temple  called  by  the  Bedouins,  Serai  Farouns,  is  the  only  struc- 
ture still  standing  which  is  at  all  complete,  and  which  stands 
without  any  support  from  the  crags  around.  Burckhardt  heard 
this  place  called  the  Kaszr  Bent  Faroun,  or  the  Palace  of 
Pharaoh's  daughter.  He  was  very  anxious  to  visit  it,  but  the 
suspicions  of  his  guides  were  aroused,  that  his  object  was  to 
secure  buried  treasure,  and  he  was  unable  to  enter  it.  He  dis- 
covered, however,  on  the  same  side  of  the  brook,  which  he 
says  pursues  a  subterranean  course  here  of  a  quarter  of  an 
hour's  distance,  a  soHtary  pillar  thirty  feet  in  height,  and  com- 
posed of  a  dozen  pieces  of  stone.  It  was  called  Zob  Faroun, 
(Jiasta  virilis  Pharaonis.^  Laborde  has  given  a  view  of  it. 
According  to  Robinson,  it  forms  a  part  of  a  temple,  whose 
broken  columns  and  fragments  strew  the  earth  around. 

The  main  ruins,  which  lie  on  the  left  bank  of  the  brook, 
have  been  largely  washed  away  and  undermined  by  the  brook 
at  its  times  of  flood ;  and  the  water  may  be  seen  here  and 
there  standing  in  pools,  which  are  in  some  cases  surrounded 


THE  JVIAUSOLEUM.  255 

by  masses  of  rubbish,  towering  high  up  the  sides  of  the  cliffs. 
These  have  not  yet  been  examined  and  described  with  any 
minuteness.  On  the  right  side  of  the  brook  there  is  another 
mass  of  ruins,  but  the  original  forms,  of  which  they  once 
formed  a  part,  are  more  indistinguishable  than  those  on  the 
eastern  side.  It  is  still  manifest,  however,  that  it  was  on  this 
side  that  the  main  body  of  the  city  lay,  and  that,  extending 
a  good  way  northward  as  it  did,  its  area  could  scarcely  have 
been  less  than  an  hour's  circuit.  On  the  east  side  of  the  brook 
the  tombs  still  continue,  cut  out  of  the  sides  of  the  crags ;  in 
one  place  Burckhardt  counted  fifty  of  these  ranged  side  by  side. 
He  remarks,  moreover,  that  the  finest  sepulchres  in  Wadi 
Musa,  are  in  the  eastern  cliff,  and  that  high  up  he  noticed  one 
large  tomb  with  Corinthian  pilasters.  Laborde  has  given 
views  of  some  of  the  most  remarkable  sepulchres  on  this  side  ; 
and  Irby  and  Mangles  have  described  some  of  them  in  con- 
siderable detail.  One  of  these,  perhaps  the  largest,  is  three 
stories  in  height,  the  lower  one  of  which  is  entered  by  four 
portals.  The  two  upper  stories  are  ornamented  with  eighteen 
Ionic  pillars  each,  while  a  part  of  the  structure,  which  once 
evidently  towered  above  the  crag,  was  made  of  hewn  stones, 
but  had  fallen  into  ruin.  In  the  interior  they  discovered  apart- 
ments furnished  with  marble,  and  bearing  the  traces  of  luxury. 
Another  Mausoleum,  seventy  or  eighty  feet  in  height,  and  of 
great  extent,  having  a  central  part  and  two  wings,  the  whole 
hewn  out  of  the  rock,  and  provided  even  with  cellars,  is 
remarkable  not  only  for  the  number  and  size  of  its  apartments, 
but  also  from  the  fact  that  it  bears  traces  of  having  been 
transferred  from  its  original  purpose  into  a  Christian- church, 
the  only  monument  of  its  kind  in  the  entire  city.  In  three 
niches  yet  to  be  seen  are  remains  of  altars ;  the  places  where  tap- 
estry and  pictures  were  suspended  are  to  be  seen  on  the  walls ; 
and  in  one  corner  is  an  inscription  executed  in  red,  giving  the 
date  when  the  place  was  consecrated.  Unfortunately  the  latter 
is  one  of  the  interesting  facts  which  Mr.  Bankes'  refusal  to  pub- 
lish the  results  of  his  explorations  withholds  from  the  world. 


256  THE  WESTERN   WALL. 

The  western  wall  of  the  Wadi  is  higher  than  the  eastera, 
attaining  an  altitude  of  three  or  four  hundred  feet ;  and  from 
the  bottom  to  the  top  it  is  perforated  with  tombs,  although 
they  are  not  so  elaborately  construeted  or  so  numerous  as  in 
the  eastern  cliff.  This  part  was  therefore  considered  by  Irby 
and  Mangles  as  a  kind  of  suburb  of  the  place.  On  this  side 
lies  the  unfinished  tomb,  copied  by  Laborde,  in  which  it  is  per- 
fectly easy  to  see  that  the  method  of  working  pursued  by  the 
Nabathffian  architects  was  to  smooth  the  face  of  the  rock,  and 
then  to  commence  at  the  top  and  to  work  downward,  first  ex- 
ecuting the  roof,  then  the  frieze,  then  the  capitals  of  the  pillars, 
then  the  pillars  themselves,  and  so  on  till  the  whole  work  was 
finished.  This  explains  the  circumstance,  that  so  many  tombs 
which  are  elaborately  wrought  in  the  upper  part,  have  been  left 
in  a  rude  state  below ;  for  the  scale  laid  out  may  have  been 
necessarily  abandoned,  in  consequence  of  the  failure  of  the 
means  which  had  been  reckoned  upon  at  the  outset.  This,  too, 
solves  a  mystery  which  perplexed'  Mr.  Bankes,  namely,  that 
in  some  cases  the  facade  is  wrought  in  one  arcliitectural  style 
in  the  upper  story,  while  the  lower  one  is  in  another.  Laborde 
noticed  the  same  fact,  and  was  perplexed  by  it.  But  the  union, 
not  only  of  the  various  Greek  orders  of  architecture  in  the 
same  structure,  but  of  others,  even  of  the  Egj^tian  and  other 
oriental  styles,  shows  that  in  those  instances  the  time  of  build- 
ing was  not  confined  to  a  few  years,  but  was  distributed  over 
many ;  and  that  the  thread  which  was  dropped  by  the  older 
architects  was  taken  up  by  the  subsequent  ones,  until  the 
whole  work  was  completed.  Sometimes,  too,  there  is  great 
irregularity  in  the  exterior  appearance  of  the  structure ;  and 
where  this  is  the  case,  and  pillars  and  doors  have  been  set  in 
such  fanciful  positions  as  to  mar  the  architectural  effect,  it  has 
been  found  owing  to  some  necessity  growing  fi'om  the  config- 
uration of  the  apartments  within. 

Most  of  these  structures  in  the  rock  walls  which  surround 
Petra  were  unquestionably  intended  to  serve  as  tombs,  but 
Bankes  satisfied  himself  that  there  were  exceptions  to  this.    In 


THE   BROOK   AT   PETRA.  257 

one  he  discovered  four  front  windows,  and  a  hall  sixty  feet  long, 
and  of  proportionate  breadth  and  height,  which  had  evidently 
been  built  to  serve  as  a  dwelUng.  It  differed  from  the  tombs, 
however,  in  the  entire  absence  of  ornament  in  the  exterior. 
Nor  was  this  the  only  instance  of  the  kind.  The  entrance  to 
this  house  was  not  from  the  level  ground,  but  from  a  project- 
ing ledge  of .  rock,  recalling  the  words  of  Isaiah,  xxii.  16 : 
'  What  hast  thou  here,  and  whom  hast  thou  here,  that  thou 
hast  hewed  thee  out  a  sepulchre  here,  as  he  that  heweth  him 
out  a  sepulchre  on  high,  and  that  graveth  an  habitation  for 
himself  in  a  rock.'  It  remains  up  to  the  present  day  a  mys- 
tery how  the  people  who  inhabited  those  lofty  abodes  were 
able  to  reach  them ;  and  Schubert  in  his  perplexity  asks,  '  Did 
the  builders  of  those* places  have  wings  like  the  eagle,  to  en- 
able them  to  soar  to  those  lofty  heights  ? ' 

Robinson  wdio  followed  the  course  of  the  brook  down  to 
this  point,  says  that  the  water  was  not  abundant,  but  excel- 
lent. It  flows  westward  from  this  spot,  entering  a  gorge 
which  resembles  in  general  character  the  Syk,  but  which  is 
broader  and  more  irregular  in  shape  than  that.  The  brook  is 
so  thickly  shaded  with  oleanders  that  it  is  difficult  to  follow  its 
course.  The  walls  of  this  gorge  are  also  full  of  tombs,  but 
they  are  smaller  than  the  others  and  destitute  of  external  dec- 
orations. A  high  rock  on  the  left  Laborde  held  to  be  the 
Acropolis  of  Petra,  though  Robinson  doubts  it:  Irby  and  Man- 
gles make  no  allusion  to  it.  Formy  who  visited  Petra  in  1840, 
is  the  only  traveler  who  has  made  any  detailed  allusions  to  it ; 
and  his  narrative  is  so  confused  and  inexact  as  to  be  of  much 
less  value  than  could  be  wished.  He  has,  however,  brought 
some  interesting  facts  to  light.  He  alludes  to  a  tomb  there  as 
being  the  only  one  which  he  saw  whose  interior  is  ornamented. 
Laborde  speaks  of  it  as  now  used  mainly  by  the  herdsmen  as 
a  sheep-fold.  From  this  spot  Formy  climbed  to  an  adjacent 
elevation,  on  which  he  found  a  cistern  constructed  with  ex- 
cellent cement,  and  a  little  way  higher  two  bastions  with  walls 
in.  a  state  of  ruin  :  what  purpose  they  had  served  remained  a 


258  THE   NEIGHBORHOOD    OF   PETRA. 

mystery  to  him.  South  of  this  species  of  fort  he  came  to  a 
platform  hewn  out  of  the  rock,  sustaining  two  stone  obelisks, 
bearing  the  name  Zob  Faroun,  which  seemed  to  be  applied 
with  a  different  meaning  than  to  the  pillar  of  which  Burck- 
hardt  speaks  under  the  same  name.  Every  step  which  he  took 
from  that  spot  to  his  tent,  revealed  to  him  new  winding  stairs 
and  paths  in  the  rock,  with  traces  here  and  th^re  of  gardens 
which  he  thinks  must  at  one  time  have  imparted  a  paradisaical 
air  to  the  place. 

Robinson  ■  sought  to  find  an  opening  in  the  narrow  gorge 
running  westward  which  would  lead  him  to  the  ruin  called 
the  Deir.  He  found  many  narrow  wadis,  but  they  did  not 
guide  him  to  the  object  of  his  search ;  and  the  shepherds  as- 
sured him  that  it  is  inaccessible  from  thi»  point.  Farther  west 
the  gorge  has  never  been  penetrated,  and  not  even  the  Arab 
guides  could  tell  in  what  direction  the  waters  of  the  brook 
force  their  way  through  the  mountains.  Yet  Robinson  sat- 
isfied himself  that  Wadi  Musa  does  not  run  under  this  name 
into  the  great  Araba,  and  that  the  course  which  Laborde  has 
given  on  his  map  has  no  real  existence.  Irby  and  Mangles 
followed  the  course  of  the  brook  but  for  a  little  distance,  but 
long  enough  to  be  filled  with  surprise  at  the  profuse  luxuri- 
ance of  the  oleander  thickets  which  follow  its  course,  as  well 
as  at  the  other  growths  which  accompany  it.  They  discovered 
carobs,  figs,  mulberries,  grapes,  pomegranates,  and  a  beautiful 
variety  of  aloe.  In  this  neighborhood,  too,  there  was  no  lack 
of  sculptured  recesses  in  the  rock  walls,  although  they  were 
<)ften  low  and  irregular.  The  skill  displayed  here  was  far  in- 
ferior to  that  seen  in  other  parts  of  Petra. 

Above  the  rubbish  heaps  of  the  ruined  city,  and  above  the 
colossal  walls  which  hem  it  in,  rises  the  lofty  double  peak  of 
Hor,  towering  up  in  solitude,  a  jagged,  massive,  and  naked 
mass  of  rock.  It  was  Burckliardt's  wish  to  ascend  to  the 
summit ;  but  this  he  was  unable  to  accomplish,  and  only  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching  a  platform  from  which  the  traditional  tomb 
of  Aaron  can  be  seen.     Here  his  Arab  companions  offered  a 


THE  TOMB   OF  AABON.  259 

sheep,  in  sacrifice  to  the  great  high  priest.  They  soon  with- 
drew again,  to  the  valley  below,  with  the  more  satisfaction  to 
Burckhardt,  as  he  heard  from  the  Arabs  that  the  tomb  above 
contained  nothing  whatever  which  would  repay  him  for  the 
toil  of  ascending  the  mountain  farther.  He  afterwards  re- 
gretted not  making  the  effort,  as  he  heard  that  within  th^- 
tomb  are  three  interesting  copper  vessels  which  were  once  in 
use  in  sacrificing.  No  subsequent  traveler  has  confirmed  the 
existence  of  these  copper  vessels,  and  it  seems  probable  that 
Burckhardt  was  incorrectly  informed. 

The  first  Europeans  who  reached  the  summit,  and  visited 
the  so-called  tomb  of  Aaron,  were  Bankes,  and  his  compan- 
ions, Irby  and  Mangles.*  They  describe  the  ascent  as  very 
difficult,  although  there  were  many  places  where  the  path 
had  been  smoothed  away  apparently  for  the  accommodation 
of  the  great  numbers  of  pilgrims  who  ascended  it.  The  time 
required  to  reach  the  top  was  an  hour.  The  rocks  were  not 
entirely  destitute  of  verdure ;  and  even  at  the  summit  the 
travelers  found  some  shrubs  which  were  new  to  them,  particu- 
larly some  thorny  ones,  and  an  unknown  kind  of  juniper. 

The  building  which  bears  the  name  of  Aaron's  tomb  does 
not  differ  at  all  from  the  ordinary  structures  which  cover  the 
remains  of  the  Arab  sheikhs,  and  holy  men.  It  is  apparently 
composed,  in  part  at  least,  of  fragments  of  stone  which  had 
been  used  in  a  previous  structure  on  the  same  spot.  At  pres- 
ent the  only  noticeable  objects  in  the  building  are  some  rags, 
bits  of  yarn,  false  pearls  and  para  coins,  all  of  the  least  possi- 
ble value.  Some  steps  below  the  chapel  there  is  an  arched 
vault,  in  whose  rear  there  is  a  couple  of  chains,  which  guard 
the  entrance  to  what  purports  to  be  the  real  burial-place  of 
the  saint ;  the  door  is  also  guarded  with  a  ragged  cloth.  The 
dim  light  of  the  lamp  did  not  allow  many  objects  to  be  seen ; 
and  as  the  travelers  were  obliged  to  enter  the  place  barefoot, 
on  account  of  its  reputed  sanctity,  they  did  not  remain  within 
it  long,  but  soon  withdrew,  for  fear  of  snakes  or  scorpions.    The 

*lrby  and  Mangles,  pp.  433-439;  Legh,  pp.  230-232. 

16 


260  BURIAL-PLACE   OF   AARON. 

view  in  all  directions  from  the  summit  of  Mount  Hor  is  very 
extensive  and  grand,  although  very  few  of  the  details  which 
make  it  up  are  known  by  name,  and  the  distance  is  too  great  to 
distinguish  many  of  the  objects  in  the  range  of  vision.  Still  we 
cannot  wholly  pass  over  a  prospect  so  interesting.  From  the 
southern  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea  a  chain  of  mountains  may  Ije 
seen,  extending  far  away  into  the  south,  but  diminishing  in 
hight,  until  in  the  distant  horizon  they  seem  to  be  unimport- 
ant hills.  Legh  insists  that  from  the  summit  of  Hor  he  dis- 
tinctly discerned  Mount  Sinai.  At  the  foot,  the  long,  sandy 
plain  of  the  Araba  can  be  traced,  its  surface  seamed  with  the 
courses  of  wadis  and  brooks,  and  as  it  nears  the  immediate 
base,  displaying  scattered  hills,  which  in  their  isolation  have 
the  appearance  of  islands.  Towards  the  south-west  the  sight 
wanders  away  indefinitely,  without  falling  upon  any  promi- 
nent object.  Towards  the  south-east  the  vision  is  bounded 
by  the  near  Arabian  chain,  and  from  that  the  eye  comes  back 
to  Hor  itself,  with  its  steep,  jagged  sides,  its  gorges  and  preci- 
pices, and  its  labyrinthine  valleys.  The  most  striking  single 
object  to  be  discerned  from  the  summit,  is  the  colossal  struct- 
ure known  as  the  ed-Deir,  or  the  convent.  It  is  in  a  north- 
easterly direction  from  the  tomb  of  Aaron,  and  even  there  is 
seen  to  be  larger  than  the  Khasneh,  although  of  similar  style  ; 
and,  like  that,  it  is  crowned  with  a  colossal  urn.  Petra  is 
entirely  concealed  from  view  as  one  stands  on  the  summit 
of  Hor. 

Laborde  *  is  the  first  European  traveler  who  has  succeeded 
in  reaching  the  Deir.  The  way  is  an  intricate  one,  and  can 
not  be  found  without  a  guide.  The  ascent  from  the  valley  is 
rapid  and  steep,  and  the  brooks  fall  in  pleasant  little  cascades, 
as  they  find  their  way  down  to  the  bottom.  Later  travelers 
estimate  the  entire  altitude  of  the  "  Convent "  as  about  a 
thousand  feet  above  Wadi  Musa.      The  building,  although 

*  Laborde,  Voy.  p.  59,  and  Plan  de  la  ville  de  Petra  et  de  ses  environs,  levisur  les 
Ueux,  p.  L.  de  Laborde ;  Irb/  and  Mangles,  Sketch  of  the  ground  plan  of  Pen  a  in 
Trav.  p.  419. 


262  Robinson's  visit. 

colossal  in  proportions  is  executed  in  the  debased  style  of  the 
third  and  fourth  centuries,  and  recalls  to  one's  mind  th«  de- 
cline of  the  renaissance  style  of  the  fifteenth.  The  general 
appearance  is  similar  to  the  Khasneh,-  there  being  two  stories, 
with  colonnades  and  pilasters,  ten  below  and  six  above.  There 
is  less  detail  in  the  finish  and  all  is  more  coarsely  executed, — 
a  deficiency  which  was  explained  away  by  subsequent  travel- 
ers, however,  who  showed  the  structui-e  had  never  been 
brought  to  a  state  of  completion. 

Robinson  subsequently  visited  ed-Deir,  and  has  left  a  good 
account  of  it,  and  of  its  general  situation.  From  the  steps, 
Mount  Hor  can  be  seen  at  the  south-west,  throned  in  solitary 
majesty,  while  the  eye  runs  far  away  over  the  savage  sand- 
stone crags,  and  down  the  steep  defile  which  forms  the  ascent. 
The  building  itself,  despite  its  overladen  style,  makes  a  very 
strong  impression  upon  the  mind.  That  it  is  now  only  a  part 
of  what  it  once  was,  is  shown  by  the  stairways  which  are  seen 
in  the  neighborhood,  the  tombs  near  by,  and  the  ruins  of  a 
palace  just  confronting  it.  The  latter  was  not  visited  till 
Roberts  and  Kinnear  explored  the  place  thoroughly.  The  in- 
terior of  ed-Deir,  like  that  of  the  Khasneh  does  not  corre- 
spond to  its  exterior  richness ;  Robinson  saw  nothing  but  a 
bare  room  hewn  out  of  the  rock,  and  in  the  rear  a  recess  slightly 
elevated,  and  approached  by  flights  of  steps  at  the  ends, — an 
arrangement  which  reminded  him  of  the  altars  in  many  Greek 
churches.  He  thought  he  also  saw  traces  indicating  that  a 
curtain  had  once  hung  there  ;  and  the  impression  was  strongly 
made  on  his  mind,  that  the  place  was  originally  erected  as  a 
heathen  temple,  but  had  been  converted  into  a  Christian 
church.  Roberts  the  distinguished  artist,  who  subsequently 
visited  the  place  and  sketched  it,  was  made  more  certain,  if 
possible,  than  Robinson  had  been :  he  discovered  a  cross  painted 
on  the  wall  in  the  rear  of  the  altar.  The  dimensions  of  the  main 
apartment  are  fifty  feet  by  fifty,  and  thirty  high.  The  eleva- 
tion of  the  urn  is  thought  by  the  latest  travelers  to  be  a  hui?* 
dred  feet  higher  than  that  of  el-Khazneh.     Roberts  was  the 


CONQUEST   OF   AJVIMON. 


265 


first  to  discover  that  the  rudeness  of  the  architecture,  which 
had  been  spoken  of  by  Laborde  and  Robinson,  results  from 
the  fact  that  the  work  was  never  completed.  It  is  a  work  so 
modern  in  its  date,  that  many  of  the  capitals  of  the  columns 
and  other  architectural  details  have  never  been  begun." 

There  remained  the  territory  of  Ammon  north  of  Moab. 
The  Ammonites  were  a  fierce,  a  powerful,  and  had  now  grown 
to  be  a  rich  nation,  and  it  was  important  to  utterly  break  them 


WELL  OF  JOAB. 

This  well  which  lies  near  the  lower  extremity  of  the  Valley  of  Jehoshaphat  bears  the  name  of 

Joab.     It  is  often  improperly  called  the  Well  of  Job. 

From  a  Photograph  by  Frith. 

down.  The  conflict  with  Zobah  had  been  prefaced  by  a  pre- 
liminary war  with  the  Ammonites,  but  the  real  struggle  was 
to  come  now  at  the  close  of  David's  campaigns.  The  strong- 
hold of  the  tribe  was  at  Rabbath  Ammon,  a  place  about  twenty 
miles  east  of  the  Jordan,  and  bearing  at  the  present  day  the 
name  of  Amman.  It  was  divided  into  two  parts,  an  upper  and 
a  lower  town.  The  lower  was  well  supplied  with  water  from 
a  profuse  spring  and  brook.  The  upper  town  was  dependent 
upon  the  lower,  and  if-  the  latter  should  be  taken  and  the  sup- 


266  END   OF   DAVID'S   WATIS. 

ply  of  water  cut  off,  the  former  must  inevitably  fall.  To  the 
capture  of  Rabbath  Ammon,  Joab  was  sent,  David  remaining 
self-indulgently  in  Jerusalem.  Under  the  masterly  general- 
ship of  Joab,  the  lower  city  at  length  yielded,  and  the  com- 
mander sent  back  word  to  the  king,  that  if  he  would  have  the 
glory  of  taking  the  city  he  must  come  over  and  be  present  in 
person  when  the  upper  tower  should  surrender.  Although 
the  real  contest  was  past,  and  what  remained  was  purely  a 
work  of  pageantry,  David  went  and  was  present  when  the 
city  capitulated,  and  had  the  sole  glory  of  the  conquest. 

And  thus  ended  the  wars  of  David.  I  have  but  touched 
upon  them ;  with  less  completeness  even  than  the  Bible  gives 
the  account ;  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  were  the  story  of 
David's  military  exploits  fully  told,  his  name  would  stand  by 
the  side  of  the  greatest  generals.  The  narrative  we  find 
in  the  Bible  is  a  mere  outline ;  and  the  means  of  filling  it  in 
have  now  all  passed  away.  Yet  the  change  which  David 
wrought  in  the  extent  of  his  domain  show  how  great  a  con- 
queror he  was.  Egypt  then  had  an  area  of  only  ten  thousand 
square  miles;  Assyria,  that  great  empire  whose  name  is  so 
conspicuous,  reached  but  eighty  thousand  square  miles ;  but 
the  empire  of  Israel  under  David,  touched  no  less  a  figure  than 
sixty  thousand  square  miles ;  an  extent  six  times  as  great  as 
was  that  of  Egypt.  It  was  a  wonderful  change,  and  shows  the 
power  of  no  ordinary  man.  It  is  very  clear  that  David  was 
encountered  by  very  formidable  combinations  of  armies,  and 
by  a  most  lavish  use  of  resources ;  yet  the  vigor  and  merit, 
and  above  all,  the  trust  which  he  had  in  God,  were  so  re- 
markable, that  he  swept  on  without  any  hindrance,  to  the 
accompUshment  of  his  vast  designs. 


1 


as 

1 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

DAVID'S  SIN— ABSALOM'S  REVOLT. 

The  Fall  of  David — A  Turning-point  in  His  Life — Bathsheba  Descried  from  the 
Palace — Her  Husband  a  Foreigner — Uriah's  Wonderful  Fidelity — David's  Sin 
must  not  be  Measured  by  the  Standard  of  Our  Day — The  Fifty-first  Psalm — 
An  Autobiographical  Confession — David's  Star  on  the  Wane — The  Story  of 
Absalom  Minutely  Told  in  the  Bible — Stanley's  Account — Absalom's  Beauty 
— Eastern  Family  Customs — David's  Love  for  Absalom — The  Flight  of  the 
King — The  Insults  which  were  Offered  Him — Ahithopel's  Counsel — The 
Psalms  which  Grew  Out  of  this  Event — David  in  Security  East  of  the  Jor- 
dan— Death  of  Absalom — Effect  on  the  King — David's  Return. 

T  was  while  he  was  engaged  in  the  siege  of  Rabbath 
Ammon,  through  his  deputy  Joab,  that  the  moral 
fall  of  David  occurred,  that  great  catastrophe  which 
proved  to  be  a  turning-point  in  his  life.  The  triumphant  entry 
into  Jerusalem  with  the  ark,  was  the  event  which  signalizes 
his  reaching  the  height  of  his  career,  and  during  the  long 
course  of  his  wars,  he  did  not  leave  the  pinnacle  of  greatness 
to  which  he  had  risen.  But  the  plunge  down  was  sudden  and 
decisive.  He  never  rose  from  it,  and  it  involved  the  loss  of 
all  he  held  dear.  From  the  roof  of  his  palace  on  Mt.  Zion, 
he  beheld  the  form  of  a  very  beautiful  woman,  who  on  in- 
quiry, he  found  bore  the  name  of  Bathsheba,  and  who  was  the 
wife  of  one  of  the  leading  officers  in  David's  army.  Her  hus- 
band was  not  of  Israelite  birth,  but  was  connected  by  Hneage 
with  one  of  the  conquered  tribes  of  the  land,  the  same  Hit- 
tites  of  whom  Abraham  had  in  a  far  earlier  age  bought  the 
cave  of  Machpelah.  Uriah  was  then  away  with  the  army,  en- 
gaged in  the  siege  of  Rabbath  Ammon.  The  wife  yielded  to 
David's  guilty  passion,  and  became  with  child.     The  King, 


^^^  DAVID'S   GREAT   SIN. 


anxious  to  hide  the  parentage  of  the  infant,  when  it  should  be 
born  sent  to  Uriah,  and  gave  him  a  furlough.     But  nothing 
would  induce  the  brave  soldier  to  sleep  at  his  own  house      He 
felt  that  while  in  the  King's  service  he  must  sleep  at  the 
palace ;  and  although  David  sought  to  break  him  down  with 
wine,  and  in  other  ways  to  place  him  where  he  might  yield  to 
domestic  indulgence,  it  was  all  in  vain.     Finding  that  Uriah's 
simple  and  stern  fidelity  was  obstinately  in  his  way,  he  sent 
the  soldier  back  to  Joab,  with  a  sealed  letter,  commanding  that 
the  bearer  be  exposed  at  an  advanced  post  where  he  must  in- 
evitably faU.     The  ruse  was  successful.     Joab  gave  Uriah  the 
command  of  a  body  which  was  to  come  close  to  the  walls  of  the 
besieged  city;  an  arrow  came  down  from  above,  and  the  noble 
man  fell.     Everything  about  Uriah  is  noble  and  disinterested  • 
everythmg  about   Bathsheba   is   selfish,   self-indulgent,  and 
wicked.     The  result  of  the  base  intrigue  was  that  after  a 
month  of  formal  mourning,  the  woman  went  to  the  palace  as 
David  s  wife,  and  became  the  mother  of  a  cluld  which  never 
lived  to  grow  up. 

The  fall  of  David  was  a  very  great  one,  but  it  should  not 
be  measured  with  the  stern  severity  with  which  it  would  be 
condemned  in  our  time,  and  with  the  Hght  of  our  day.     Still 
It  needed  only  the  faithful  dealing  of  Nathan  to  lead  him  to 
see  the  degradation  into  which  he  had  faUen,  and  to  wring  from 
him  that  wonderful  fifty-first  Psalm.     He  had  fallen,  not  with 
one  single  act  of  sin  and  shame,  but  into  a  complex  of  dastardly 
and  mfamous  acts ;  but  he  was  not  to  stay  there.      His  better 
natui-e  leaped  up  when  it  was  touched  by  the  tender  and  faith- 
ful words  of  Nathan ;  and  to  the  stern  "Thou  art  the  man," 
there  went  forth  in  answer  the  sorrowful  and  plaintive  "I 
nave  sinned." 

The  fifty-first  Psalm  stands  easily  the  first  of  all  the  strains 
ot  David.  For  in  it  he  has  expressed  the  language  of  con- 
trition for  every  man  and  every  age.  His  own  great  soul, 
trembling  with  a  sense  of  sin  and  shame,  clove  a  way  to  the 
throne  of  God,  through  which  all  sinners  have  always  loved 


ANCIENT    WAR. 
A  city  taken  by  assault,  and  the  inhabitants  led  away  captive.    From  KouTfunjik.  -  (Layard't  Ninewh,  ii.,  !85.) 


270  THE   PSALMS   WHICH  RECORD   DAVID's   SIN. 

to  come  ;  and  under  the  sense  of  just  condemnation  there  was 
revealed  to  him  a  sense  of  the  love  and  mercy  of  God,  which 
convinced  him  that  he  must  find  grace  at  the  throne,  when 
coming  with  such  sorrow  and  such  contrition.  The  whole 
Psalm  is  autobiographical,  as  is  the  thirty-second,  which  is  as- 
signed to  the  same  epoch.  In  the  fifty-first,  he  seeks  a  shelter, 
and  cries  for  pardon  ;  in  the  thirty-second  he  finds  it  and  rests 
tranquilly  on  the  bosom  of  the  Father. 

After  the  period  of  David's  adultery  we  discover  that  his 
star  is  on  the  wane.  The  whole  closing  years  of  his  reign  are 
filled  with  rebellions  and  disasters.  I  shall  not  be  able  to  nar- 
rate the  story  of  them  all,  but  that  of  Absalom  is  the  most 
striking,  and  merits  some  degree  of  careful  consideration.  The 
story  of  David's  many  marriages  is  closely  connected  with  that 
of  Absalom's  revolt ;  and  indeed  the  Old  Testament,  which  is 
cited  by  some  as  the  divine  support  of  the  institution  of  polyg- 
amy, is  at  the  same  time  the  best  witness  of  the  weakness 
which  is  inherent  in  the  system  of  a  plurality  of  wives.  Nearly 
all  the  events  which  built  the  closing  years  of  David,  grew 
out  of  his  pol3^gamy,  and  pass  the  severest  sentence  of  con- 
demnation on  it. 

The  story  of  Absalom's  revolt  is  told  with  great  minute- 
ness in  the  Bible ;  indeed,  as  Ewald  has  noticed,  and  Stanley 
following  Ewald,  with' more  particularity  than  any  other  event 
recorded  in  Holy  Writ.  Why  this  is  so  were  a  hard  question 
to  answer ;  but  the  development  of  David's  character  in  its 
various  phases,  as  displayed  in  the  rebellion,  is  so  rich,  and  to 
a  great  degree  so  beautiful,  that  I  do  not  wonder  that  it  caught 
the  mind  of  the  Hebrew  historian,  and  was  thought  worthy 
of  being  recorded  with  great  detail.  It  has  been  well  said 
that  in  that  revolt  were  exhibited  all  the  qualities  of  David, 
bis  tenderness,  mercy,  prudence,  caution,  judgment ;  and  that 
only  one  conspicuous  trait,  his  courage,  fails  to  appear. 

Dean  Stanley  has  given  so  pictiu^esquely  and  with  such 
fullness  of  detail  the  story  of  Absalom's  revolt,  that  I  tran- 
scribe from  the  glowing  pages  of  his  "  Jewish  Church,"  the 


Absalom's  revolt.  271 

narrative  of  this  memorable  transaction.  Stanley  weaves  to- 
gether the  details  of  the  Scripture  story,  and  out  of  the  whole 
constructs  a  tale,  which  is  perfectly  simple,  artistic  and  beau- 
tiful : 

"  The  eldest  of  the  Princes  was  Amnon,  the  son  of  Ahi- 
noam,  whom  the  King  cherished  as  the  heir  to  the  throne, 
with  an  affection  amounting  almost  to  awe.  His  intimate 
friend  in  the  family  was  his  cousin  Jonadab,  one  of  those 
characters  who  in  great  houses  pride  themselves  on  being  ac- 
quainted and  on  dealing  with  all  the  secrets  of  the  family. 
This  was  one  group  in  the  royal  circle.  Another  consisted  of 
the  two  children  of  Maacah,  the  princess  of  Geshur, — Absa- 
lom and  his  sister  Tamar,  the  only  two  of  purely  royal  de- 
scent. In  all  of  them  the  beauty  for  which  the  house  of 
Jesse  was  renowned — David's  brothers,  David  himself,  Ado- 
nijah,  Solomon — seemed  to  be  concentrated.  Absalom  espe- 
cially was  in  this  respect  the  very  flower  and  pride  of  the 
whole  nation.  '  In  all  Israel  there  was  none  to  be  praised  for 
his  beauty,'  like  him.  '  From  the  crown  of  his  head  to  the 
sole  of  his  foot  there  was  no  blemish  in  him.'  The  magnifi- 
cence of  his  hair  was  something  wonderful.  Year  by  year  or 
month  by  month  its  weight  was  known  and  counted.  He 
had  a  sheep-farm  near  Ephraim  or  Ephron,  a  few  miles  to  the 
north-east  of  Jerusalem,  and  another  property  near  the  Jor- 
dan Valley,  where  he  had  erected  a  monument  to  keep  alive 
the  remembrance  of  his  name,  from  the  melancholy  feeling 
that  the  three  sons  who  should  have  preserved  his  race  had 
died  before  hun.  He  had,  however,  one  daughter,  who  after- 
wards carried  on  the  royal  line  in  her  child,  called,  after  her 
grandmother,  Maacah,  and  destined  to  play  a  conspicuous  part 
in  the  history  of  the  divided  kingdom.  This  daughter  was 
named  Tamar,  after  her  aunt.  The  elder  Tamar,  like  her 
brother  and  her  niece,  was  remarkable  for  her  extraordinary 
beauty,  whence  perhaps  she  derived  her  name, '  the  palm-tree,* 
the  most  graceful  of  oriental  trees.  For  this,  and  for  the 
homely  art  of  making  a  peculiar  kind  of  cakes,  the  Princess 


272  THE  BEGINNING   OF   THE  BEVOLT. 

had  acquired  a  renown  which  reached  beyond  the  seclusion  of 
her  brother's  house  to  all  the  circle  of  the  royal  family. 

There  had  been  no  cloud  to  disturb  the  serene  relations 
of  these  different  groups  till  the  fatal  day  when  Aranon,  who 
had  long  wasted  away,  grown  '  morning  by  morning  paler  and 
paler,  leaner  and  leaner,'  from  a  desperate  passion  for  his  half- 
sister  Tamar, — at  last  contrived,  through  the  management  of 
Jonadab,  to  accomplish  his  evil  design.  It  was  a  moment  long 
remembered  as  '  the  beginning  of  woes,'  when  on  his  brutal 
hatred  succeeding  to  his  brutal  passion,  she  found  herself  driven 
out  of  the  house,  and  in  a  frenzy  of  grief  and  indignation  tore 
off  the  sleeves  from  her  royal  robes,  and,  with  her  bare  arms, 
clasped  on  her  head  the  handfuls  of  ashes  which  she  had 
snatched  from  the  ground,  and  rushed  to  and  fro  through  the 
streets  screaming  aloud,  till  she  encountered  her  brother  Ab- 
salom, and  by  him  was  taken  into  his  own  house.  The  King, 
was  afraid  or  unwilling  to  punish  the  crime  of  the  heir  to  the 
throne.  But  on  Absalom,  as  her  brother,  devolved,  accord- 
ing to  Eastern  notions,  the  dreadful  duty,  the  frightful  pleas- 
ure, of  avenging  his  sister's  wrong.  All  the  Princes  were  in- 
vited by  him  to  a  pastoral  festival  at  his  country-house,  and 
there  Amnon  was  slain  by  his  brother's  retainers.  There  was 
a  general  alarm.  It  would  seem  as  if  there  was  something 
desperate  in  Absalom's  character  which  made  those  around 
him  feel  that  there  was  an  immeasurable  vista  of  vengeance 
opened.  The  other  Princes  rushed  to  their  mules  and  gal- 
loped back  to  Jerusalem.  The  exaggerated  news  had  already 
reached  their  father  that  all  had  perished.  Jonadab  reassured 
him.  Still,  the  truth  was  dark  enough ;  and  in  the  presence 
of  a  loss  which  appears  to  have  been  deeply  felt,  not  only  by 
the  King,  but  by  the  whole  family,  Absalom  was  forced  to  re- 
tire to  exile  beyond  the  limits  of  Palestine,  to  his  father-in- 
law's  court  at  Geshur. 

But  much  as  the  King  had  loved  Amnon,  he  loved  Absa- 
lom more  :  Joab,  always  loyal,  always  ready,  saw  that  he  only 
needed  an  excuse  to  recall  the  absent  son,  and  by  a  succession 


ABSALOM  AT   THE  GATE. 


273 


of  devices,  Absalom  was  brought  back  first  to  his  country 
property,  and  then  to  Jerusalem  itself.  But  meanwhile,  he 
himself  had  been  alienated  from  David  by  his  long  exile.  He 
found  himself  virtually  chief  of  the  King's  sons.  That  strength 
and  violence  of  will  which  made  him  terrible  among  his 
brethren  was 
now  to  vent  it- 
self against  his 
father.  He 
courted  popular- 
ity by  constantly 
appearing  in  the 
royal  seat  of 
judgment,  in  the 
gateway  of  Je- 
rusalem. He  af- 
fected royal  state 
by  the  unusual 
display  of  chari- 
ots and  war-hor- 
ses, and  runners 
to  precede  him. 
Under  pretext  of 
a  pilgrimage  to 
Hebron,  possibly 
as  the  Patriarch- 
al sanctuary, 
perhaps  only  as 
his  own  birth- 
place, he  there 
set  up  his  claims 

to  the  throne,  and  became  suddenly  the  head  of  a  formidable 
revolt.  In  that  ancient  capital  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  he 
would  find  adherents  jealous  of  their  own  elected  king's  ab- 
sorption into  the  nation  at  large.  And  not  far  off,  amongst 
the  southern  hills,  in  Giloh,  dwelt  the  renowned  Ahithophel, 


ORIENTAL  GATE  OR  DOOR. 

Such  as  that  where  Absalom  sat.     It  was  the  favorite  place  for  heaf 

ing  charges  and  giving  judgment 


274  DAVID   FLEES   FOR   JERUSALEM. 

wisest  of  all  the  Israelite  statesmen.  According  to  the  tra- 
ditional interpretation  of  several  of  the  Psalms,  he  was  in  the 
closest  confidence  with  David,  though,  if  we  may  trust  the 
indications  of  the  history,  he  had,  through  the  wrongs  of  his 
grand-daughter  Bathsheba,  the  deepest  personal  reasons  for 
enmity. 

It  was  apparently  early  on  the  morning  of  the  day  after  he 
had  received  the  news  of  the  rebellion  that  the  King  left  the 
city  of  Jerusalem.  There  is  no  single  day  in  the  Jewish  his- 
tory of  which  so  elaborate  an  account  remains  as  of  this  mem- 
orable flight.  There  is  none,  we  may  add,  that  combines  so 
many  of  David's  characteristics, — his  patience,  his  high-spir- 
ited religion,  his  generosity,  his  calculation :  we  miss  only  his 
daring  courage.  Was  it  crushed,  for  the  moment,  by  the 
weight  of  parental  grief,  or  of  bitter  remorse  ? 

Every  stage  of  the  mournful  procession  was  marked  by 
some  peculiar  incident.  He  left  the  city,  accompanied  by  his 
whole  court.  None  of  his  household  remained,  except  ten  of 
the  women  of  the  harem,  whom  he  sent  back,  apparently  to 
occupy  the  palace.  The  usual  array  of  mules  and  asses  was 
left  behind.  They  were  all  on  foot.  The  first  halt  was  at  a 
spot  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  known  as  "  the  Far  House." 
The  second  was  by  a  solitary  olive-tree  that  stood  by  the  road 
to  the  wilderness  of  the  Jordan.  Here  the  long  procession 
formed  itself.  The  body-guard  of  Philistines  moved  at  the 
head ;  then  followed  the  great  mass  of  the  regular  soldiery ; 
next  came  the  high  officers  of  the  court ;  and  last,  immedi- 
ately before  the  King  himself,  the  six  hundred  warriors,  his 
ancient  companions,  with  their  wives  and  children.  Amongst 
these  David  observed  Ittai  of  Gath,  and  with  the  true  noble- 
ness of  his  character  entreated  the  Philistine  chief  not  to  peril 
his  own  or  his  countrymen's  lives  in  the  service  of  a  fallen  and 
a  stranger  sovereign.  But  Ittai  declared  his  resolution  (with 
a  fervor  which  almost  inevitably  recalls  a  like  profession  made 
almost  on  the  same  spot  to  the  Great  Descendant  of  David 
centuries  afterwards)  to  follow  him  in  life  and  in  death.     The 


\ 


276  David's  flight. 

King  accepted  his  faithful  service  ;  and  calling  him  to  his  side, 
they  advanced  to  the  head  of  the  march,  and  passed  over  the 
deep  ravine  of  the  Kidron,  very  closely  followed  by  the 
guards  and  their  children.  It  was  the  signal  that  he  was  de- 
termined on  flight ;  and  a  wail  of  grief  rose  from  the  whole  pro- 
cession, which  seemed  to  be  echoed  back  by  mountain  and  val- 
ley, as  if  '  the  whole  land  wept  with  a  loud  voice.'  At  this 
point  they  were  overtaken  by  another  procession,  consisting  of 
the  Levites  and  the  two  Priests,  Zadok  and  Abiathar,  bringing 
the  ark  from  its  place  on  the  hill  of  Zion  to  accompany  the 
King  in  his  flight.  There  is  a  difference  in  the  conduct  of  the 
rival  Priests  which  seems  to  indicate  thek  different  shades  of 
loyalty.  Zadok  remained  by  the  ark ;  Abiathar  went  apart 
on  the  mountain  side,  apparently  waiting  to  watch  the  stream 
of  followers  as  it  flowed  past.  With  a  spirit  worthy  of  the 
King  who  was  Prophet  as  well  as  Priest,  David  refused  this 
new  aid.  He  would  not  use  the  ark  as  a  charni ;  he  had  too 
much  reverence  for  it  to  risk  it  in  his  personal  peril.  He  re- 
minded Zadok  that  he  too  by  his  prophetic  insight  ought  to 
have  known  better.  '  Thou  a  seer ! '  It  was  a  case  where 
the  agility  of  their  two  sons  was  likely  to  be  of  more  avail 
than  the  officious  zeal  of  the  chief  Priests.  To  them  he  left 
the  charge  of  bringing  him  tidings  from  the  capital,  and 
passed  onwards  to  the  Jordan.  Another  burst  of  wild  lament 
broke  out  as  the  procession  turned  up  the  mountain  pathway ; 
the  King  leading  the  long  dirge,  which  was  taken  up  all  down 
the  slope  of  Olivet.  The  King  drew  his  cloak  over  his  head, 
and  the  rest  did  the  same ;  he  only  distinguished  by  his  un- 
sandaled  feet.  At  the  top  of  the  mountain,  consecrated  by 
one  of  the  altars  in  that  age  common  on  the  hill-tops  of  Pal- 
estine, and  apparently  used  habitually  by  David,  they  were 
met  by  Hushai  the  Archite,  '  the  friend,'  as  he  was  officially 
called,  of  the  King.  The  priestly  garment,  which  he  wore 
after  the  fashion,  as  it  would  seem,  of  David's  chief  officers, 
was  torn,  and  his  head  was  smeared  with  dust,  in  the  agony 
of  his  grief.     In  him  David  saw  his  first  gleam  of  hope.    For 


TWO   NEW   CHARACTERS. 


277 


warlike  purposes  he  was  useless ;  but  of  political  stratagem 
he  was  a  master.  A  moment  before,  the  tidings  had  come  of 
the  treason  of  Ahithophel.  To  frustrate  his  designs,  Hushai 
was  sent  back,  just  in  time  to  meet  Absalom  arriving  from 
Hebron.  . 

It  was  noon  when  David  passed  over  the  mountain  top, 
and  now,  as  Jerusalem  was  left  behind,  and  the  new  prospect 


DIFFERENT  MODES  OF  OBEISANCE, 

The  attitude  with  which  ancient  monarchs  received  homage. 

opened  before  him,  two  new  characters  appeared,  both  in  con- 
nection with  the  hostile  tribe  of  Benjamin,  whose  territory 
they  were  entering.  One  of  them  was  Ziba,  slave  of  Mephib- 
osheth,  taking  advantage  of  the  civil  war  to  make  his  own 
fortunes,  and  bringing  the  story  that  Mephibosheth  had  gone 
over  to  the  rebels,  in  the  hope  of  a  restoration  of  the  dynasty 
of  his  grandfather  Saul.  The  King  gratefully  accepted  his 
17 


278 


INSULTS   OB'FERED    TO   DAVID. 


oifering-,  (ook  the  stores  of  bread,  dates,  grapes,  and  wine  for 
his  followers,  and,  in  a  moment  of  indignation,  granted  to 
Ziba  the  whole  pro[)erty  of  Mephibosheth.  At  Bahurim,  also 
on  the  downward  pass,  he  encountered  another  member  of  the 
fallen  dynasty,  Shimei,  the  son  of  Gera.  His  house  was  just 
within  the  borders  of  Benjamin  on  the  spot  where — appar- 
ently for  this  reason — Michal,  the  princess  of  that. same  house, 
had  left  her  husband,  rhaltiel.  All  the  fury  of  the  rival 
dynasties,  with  all  the  foul  names  which  long  feuds  had  engen- 
dered, burst  forth  as  the 
two  parties  here  came  into 
collision.  On  the  one  side 
the  fierce  Benjamite  saw 
'the  Man  of  Blood, 'stained, 
as  it  must  have  seemed  to 
him,  with  the  slaughter  of 
Abner  and  Ishbosheth,  and 
the  seven  princes  whose 
cruel  death  at  Gibeon  was 
fresh  in  the  national  rec- 
ollection. On  the  other 
side  the  wild  sons  of  Ze- 
ruiah  saw  in  Shimei  one 
of  the  '  dead  dogs,'  or 
'  dogs'  heads,'  according 
to  the  offensive  language 
bandied  to  and  fro  amongst  the  political  rivals  of  that  age. 
A  deep  ravine  parted  the  King's  march  from  the  house  of 
the  furious  Benjamite.  But  along  the  ridge  he  ran,  throwing 
stones  as  if  for  the  adulterer's  punishment,  or  when  he  came 
to  a  patch  of  dust  on  the  dry  hill-side,  taking  it  up,  and  scat- 
tering it  over  the  royal  party  below,  with  the  elaborate  curses 
of  which  only  eastern  partisans  are  fully  masters, — curses 
which  David  never  forgot,  and  of  which,  according  to  the 
Jewish  tradition,  every  letter  was  significant.  The  compan- 
ions of  David,  who  felt  an  insult  to  their  master  as  an  injury 


DIFFERENT  MODES  OF  OBEISANCE. 


BOLD   STEPS   OF  ABSALOM.  279 

to  themselves,  could  hardly  restrain  themselves.  Abishai — 
with  a  fiery  zeal,  which  reminds  us  of  the  sons  of  Thunder 
centuries  later — would  fain  have  rushed  across  the  defile,  and 
cut  off  the  head  of  the  blaspheming  rebel.  One  alone  re- 
tained his  calmness.  The  King,  with  a  depth  of  feeling  un- 
disturbed by  any  political  animosities,  bade  them  remember 
tliat  after  the  desertion  of  his  favorite  son  anything  was  toler- 
able, and  (with  the  turn  of  thought  so  natural  to  an  Oriental) 
that  the  curses  of  the  Benjamite  might  divert  some  portion  of 
the  Divine  anger  from  himself,  and  that  they  were  in  a  certain 
sense  the  direct  words  of  God  Himself.  The  exiles  passed 
on,  and  in  a  state  of  deep  exhaustion  reached  the  Jordan  val- 
ley, and  there  rested  after  the  long  eventful  day,  at  the  ford 
or  bridge  of  the  river.  Amongst  the  thickets  of  the  Jordan, 
the  asses  of  Ziba  were  unladen,  and  the  weary  travelers  re- 
freshed themselves,  and  waited  for  tidings  from  Jerusalem.  It 
must  have  been  long  after  nightfall,  that  the  joyful  sound  was 
heard  of  the  two  youths,  sons  of  the  High  Priests,  bursting  in 
upon  the  encampment  with  the  news  from  the  capital. 

Absalom  had  arrived  from  Hebron  almost  immediately 
after  David's  departure ;  and,  by  the  advice  of  Ahithophel, 
took  the  desperate  step — the  decisive  assumption,  according 
to  Oriental  usage,  of  royal  rights — of  seizing  what  remained 
of  the  royal  harem  in  the  most  public  and  offensive  manner. 
The  next  advice  was  equally  bold.  The  aged  counselor  of- 
fered, himself,  that  very  night,  to  pursue  and  cut  off  the  King 
before  he  had  crossed  the  Jordan.  That  single  death  would 
close  the  civil  war.  The  nation  would  return  to  her  legiti- 
mate Prince,  as  a  bride  to  her  husband.  But  now  another  ad- 
viser had  appeared  on  the  stage, — Hushai,  fresh  from  the  top 
of  OUvet,  with  his  false  professions  of  rebellion,  with  his 
ingenious  scheme  for  saving  his  royal  master.  He  drew  a 
picture  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of  following  Ahithophel's 
counsel,  and  sketched  the  scheme  of  a  general  campaign.  It 
shows  how  deeply  seated  was  the  dread  of  David's  activity 
and  courage,  even  in  this  dechne  of  his  fortunes,  that  such  a 


280  THE   KING   REACHES   A   PLACE   OF   SAFETr. 

counsel  should  have  swayed  the  mind  of  the  rebel  Prince.  It 
■was  urged  with  all  the  force  of  Eastern  poetry.  The  she-bear 
in  the  open  field  robbed  of  her  whelps,  the  wild  boar  in  the 
Jordan  valley,  would  not  be  fiercer  than  the  old  King  and- his 
faithful  followers.  David,  as  of  old,  would  be  concealed  in 
some  deep  cave,  or  on  some  inaccessible  hill,  and  all  pursuit 
would  be  as  vain  as  that  of  Saul  on  the  crags  of  Engedi.  An 
army-  must  be  got  together  capable  of  submerging  him  as  in 
a  shower  of  dew,  or  of  dragging  the  fortress  in  which  he  may 
have  been  entrenched,  stone  by  stone,  into  the  valley.  Absa- 
lom gave  way  to  the  false  counselor,  and  Hushai  immediately 
sent  off  his  emissaries  to  David.  Near,  if  not  close  under- 
neath the  eastern  walls  of  Jerusalem,  was  a  spring,  known 
as  the  '  fullers'  spring,'  where  the  two  sons  of  Zadok  and 
Abiathar  lay  ensconced,  waiting  for  their  orders  for  the  King. 
Thither,  like  the  women  at  Jerusalem  now,  came,  probably  as 
if  to  wash  or  to  draw  water,  the  female  slave  of  their  fathers' 
house,  with  the  secret  tidings  which  they  were  to  convey, 
urging  the  King  to  immediate  flight.  They  crossed  as  fast 
as  their  swift  feet  could  carry  them  over  Mount  Olivet.  Ab- 
salom had  already  caught  scent  of  them,  and  his  runners  were 
hard  upon  their  track.  Aside,  even  into  the  village  of  Bahu- 
rim,  the  hostile  village  of  Shimei  and  Phaltiel,  they  darted. 
In  it  was  a  friendly  house  which  they  sought.  In  its  court, 
they  climbed  down  a  well,  over  the  mouth  of  which  their 
host's  wife  spread  a  cloth  with  a  heap  of  corn,  and  with  an 
equivocal  reply  turned  aside  the  pursuers.  The  youths  hasted 
on  down  the  pass,  woke  up  the  King  from  his  sleep,  called 
upon  him  to  cross  '  the  water,'  and  before  the  break  of  day, 
the  whole  party  were  in  safety  on  the  farther  side. 

It  has  been  conjectured  with  much  probability  that  as  the 
first  sleep  of  that  evening  was  commemorated  in  the  fourth 
Psalm,  so  in  the  third  is  expressed  the  feeling  of  David's  thank- 
fulness at  the  final  close  of  those  twenty-four  hours  of  which 
every  detail  has  been  handed  down,  as  if  with  the  conscious- 
ness of  their  importance  at  the  time.     He  had  'laid  him  down 


FATE   OP   AHITHOPHEL.  281 

in  peace '  that  night  '  and  slept ;'  for  in  that  great  defection  of 
man,  'the  Lord  alone  had  caused  him  to  dwell  in  safety.  He 
had  laid  down  and  slept  and  awaked,  for  the  Lord  'had  sus- 
tained him.'  The  tradition  of  the  Septuagint  ascribes  the 
one  hundred  and  forty-third  Psalm  to  the  time  '  when  his  son 
was  pursuing  him.'  Some  at  least  of  its  contents  might  well 
belong  to  that  night.  'Enter  not  into  judgment  with  thy 
servant,  O  Lord,  for  in  thy  sight  shall  no  man  living  be  justi- 
fied.' 'Cause  me  to  hear  thy  loving  kindness  in  the  morning; 
for  in  thee  do  I  trust :  cause  me  to  know  the  way  wherein  I 
should  walk ;  for  I  lift  up  my  soul  unto  thee.' 

There  is  another  group  of  Psalms — the  forty-first,  fifty- 
fifth,  sixty-ninth,  and  one  hundred  and  ninth — in  which  a 
long  popular  belief  has  seen  an  amplification  of  David's  bit- 
ter cry,  '  O  Lord,  turn  the  counsel  of  Ahithophel  into  foolish- 
ness.' Many  of  the  circumstances  agree.  The  dreadful  im- 
precations in  those  Psalms — unequalled  for  vehemence  in  any 
other  part  of  the  sacred  writings — correspond  with  the  passion 
of  David's  own  expressions.  The  greatness,  too,  of  Ahitho- 
phel himself  in  the  history  is  worthy  of  the  importance  as- 
cribed to  the  object  of  those  awful  maledictions.  That  orac- 
ular wisdom,  which  made  his  house  a  kind  of  shrine,  seems  to 
move  the  spirit  of  the  sacred  writer  with  an  involuntary  ad- 
miration. Everywhere  he  is  treated  with  a  touch  of  awful 
reverence.  When  he  dies,  the  interest  of  the  plot  ceases,  and 
his  death  is  given  with  a  stately  grandeur,  quite  unlike  the 
mixture  of  the  terrible  and  the  contemptible  which  has  some- 
times gathered  round  the  end  of  those  whom  the  religious 
sentiment  of  mankind  has  placed  under  its  ban.  '  When  he 
saw  that  his  counsel  was  not  followed,  he  saddled  his  ass' — 
the  ass,  on  which  he,  like  all  the  magnates  of  Israel  except 
the  royal  family,  made  his  journeys, — he  mounted  the  south- 
ern hills,  in  which  his  native  city  lay — '  and  put  his  household 
in  order,  and  hanged  himself,  and  died,  and  was  buried,'  not 
like  an  excommunicated  outcast,  but  like  a  venerable  Patri- 
arch, '  in  the  sepulchre  of  his  father.' 


282  SECUKITY   OF   DAVID. 

With  the  close  of  that  eventful  day,  a  cloud  rests  on  the 
subsequent  history  of  the  rebellion.  Por  three  months  longer 
it  seems  to  have  lasted.  Absalom  was  formally  anointed  King. 
Amasa — his  cousin,  but  by  his  father's  side  of  wild  Arabian 
Ijlood — took  the  command  of  the  army,  which,  according  to 
Hushai's  counsel,  had  been  raised  from  the  whole  country, 
and  with  this  he  crossed  the  Jordan  in  pursuit  of  the  King. 

David  meantime  was  secure  in  the  fortress  of  Mahanaim, 
the  ancient  trans-jordanic  sanctuary,  which  had  formerly  shel- 
tered the  rival  house  of  Saul.  Three  potentates  of  that  pas- 
toral district  came  forward  at  once  to  his  support.  Shobi, 
the  son  of  David's  ancient  friend  Nahash,  King  of  Ammon, 
perhaps  put  by  David  in  his  brother  Hanun's  place  ;  Machir, 
the  son  of  Ammiel,  the  former  protector  of  Mephibosheth ; 
BarzUlai,  an  aged  chief  of  vast  wealth  and  influence,  perhaps 
the  father  of  Adriel,  the  husband  of  Merab.  Their  connec- 
tion with  David's  enemies,  whether  of  the  house  of  Saul  or 
of  Ammon,  was  overbalanced  by  earlier  alliances  with  David, 
or  by  their  respect  for  himself  personally.  They  brought, 
with  the  profuse  liberality  of  Arabs,  the  butter,  cheese,  wheat, 
barley,  flour,  parched  corn,  beans,  lentiles,  pulse,  honey,  sheep, 
with  which  the  forests  and  pastures  of  Gilead  abounded,  and 
on  which  the  historian  dwells  as  if  he  had  been  himself  one 
of  '  the  hungry  and  weary  and  thirsty '  who  had  revelled  in 
the  delightful  stores  thus  placed  before  them.  '  The  fearful- 
ness  and  trembling'  which  had  been  upon  David  were  now 
over.  He  had  fled  '  on  the  wings  of  a  dove  far  away  into  the 
wilderness,'  and  was  at  rest.  His  spmt  revived  within  him. 
He  arranged  his  army  into  three  divisions.  Joab  and  Abishai 
commanded  two.  The  third,  where  we  might  have  expected 
to  find  Benaiah,  was  under  the  faithful  Ittai.  For  a  mo- 
ment, the  King  wished  to  place  himself  at  their  head.  But 
his  life  was  worth  '  ten  thousand  men,'  and  he  accordingly 
remained  behind  in  the  fortress.  The  first  battle  took  place 
in  the  '  forest  of  Ephraim.'  The  exact  spot  of  the  conflict, 
the  origin  of  the  name,  so  strange  on  the  east  of  the  Jordan, 


DEATH   OF   ABSALOM.  283 

the  details  of  the  engagement,  are  alike  unknown.  We  see 
only  the  close,  which  has  evidently  been  preserved  from  the 
mournfid  interest  which  it  awakened  in  the  national  mind. 
In  the  interlacing  thickets,  so  unusual  on  the  west  of  the 
Jordan,  so  abundant  on  the  east,  which  the  Ammonite  wars 
had  made  familiar  to  David's  veterans,  the  host  of  Absalom 
lost  its  way.  Absalom  riding  at  full  speed  on  his  royal  mule, 
suddenly  met  a  detachment  of  David's  army,  and  darting 
aside  through  the  wood,  was  caught  by  "the  head — possibly 
entangled  by  his  long  hair — between  the  thick  boughs  of  an 
overhanging  tree,  known  by  the  name  of  '  The  Great  Tere- 
binth,' swept  off  the  animal,  and  there  remained  suspended. 
None  of  the  ordinary  soldiers  ventured  to  attack  the  helpless 
Prince.  Joab  alone  took  upon  himself  the  responsibility  of 
breaking  David's  orders.  He  and  his  ten  attendants  formed 
a  circle  round  the  gigantic  tree,  enclosing  its  precious  victim, 
and  first  by  his  three  pikes,  then  by  their  swords,  accom- 
plished the  bloody  work.  Hard  by  was  a  well-known  ditch 
or  pit,  of  vast  dimensions.  Into  this  the  corpse  was  thrown, 
and  covered  by  a  huge  mound  of  stones.  Mussulman  legends 
represent  hell  as  yawning  at  the  moment  of  his  death  beneath 
the  feet  of  the  unhappy  Prince.  The  modern  Jews,  as  they 
pass  the  monument  in  the  valley  of  the  Kidron,  to  which  they 
have  given  his  name,  have  buried  its  sides  deep  in  the  stones 
which  they  throw  against  it  in  execration.  Au- 

gustine dooms  him  to  perdition,  as  a  type  of  the  Donatists. 
But  the  sacred  writer  is  moved  only  to  deep  compassion. 
The  thought  of  that  sad  death  of  the  childless  Prince,  of  the 
desolate  cairn  in  the  forest  instead  of  the  honored  grave  that 
he  had  designed  for  himself  in  the  King's  dale, — probably 
beside  his  beloved  sheep-walks  on  the  hills  of  Ephraim, — 
blots  out  the  remembrance  of  the  treason  and  rebellion,  and 
every  detail  is  given  to  enhance  the  pathos  of  the  scene 
which  follows. 

The  King  sate  waiting  for  tidings  between  the  two  gates 
which  connected  the  double  city  of  the  '  Two  Camps '  of  Ma- 


284  EFFECT   OF  ABSALOM'S   DEATH   ON   DAVID. 

hanaim.  In  the  tower  above  the  gates,  as  afterwards  at  Jez- 
reel,  stood  a  watchman,  to  give  notice  of  what  he  saw.  Two 
messengers,  each  endeavoring  to  outstrip  the  other,  were  seen 
running  from  the  forest.  The  first  who  arrived  was  Ahimaaz, 
the  fleet  son  of  Zadok,  whose  peculiar  mode  of  running  was 
known  far  and  wide  through  the  country.  He  had  been  in- 
structed by  Joab  not  to  make  himself  the  bearer  of  tidings  so 
mournful,  and — eager  as  he  had  been  to  fulfil  his  character  of 
a  good  messenger,  and  dexterously  as  he  had  outstripped  his 
forerunner  by  the  choice  of  his  route — when  it  came  to  the 
point  his  heart  failed,  and  he  spoke  only  of  the  strange  con- 
fusion in  which  he  had  left  the  army.  At  this  moment  the 
other  messenger,  a  stranger, — probably  an  Ethiopian  slave, 
perhaps  one  of  Joab's  ten  attendants, — ^burst  in,  and  abruptly 
revealed  the  fatal  news.  The  passionate  burst  of  grief  which 
followed  is  one  ot  the  best  proofs  of  the  deep  and  genuine 
affection  of  David's  character.  He  rushed  into  the  watch- 
man's chamber  over  the  gateway,  and  eight  times  over  re- 
peated the  wail  of  grief  for  Absalom  his  son.  It  was  the 
belief  of  the  more  merciful  of  the  Jewish  doctors  that  at  each 
cry,  one  of  the  seven  gates  of  hell  rolled  back,  and  that  with 
the  eighth,  the  lost,  spirit  of  Absalom  was  received  into  the 
place  of  Paradise.  It  was  a  sorrow  which  did  not  confine  itself 
to  words.  He  could  not  forget  the  hand  which  had  slain  his 
son.  The  immediate  effect  of  his  indignation  was  a  solemn 
vow  to  supersede  Joab  by  Amasa,  and  in  this  was  laid  the  last- 
ing breach  between  himself  and  his  nephew,  which  neither  the 
one  nor  the  other  ever  forgave.  The  memorial  of  his  grief 
was  the  response  which  it  awakened  in  the  heart  of  his  sub- 
jects,— the  lament  over  the  winning  and  beautiful  creature, 
whose  charm  outlived  the  shock  even  of  ungrateful,  ungener- 
ous, and  unsuccessful  rebellion. 

But  stronger  even,  than  his  tenderness  for  Absalom,  was 
the  love  of  David  for  his  people,  and  of  his  people  for  David. 
He  acknowledged  the  force  of  Joab's  entreaty  to  show  himself 
once  more  in  public.     He  sent  to  Jerusalem  to  invoke  the 


ABSALOM'S  TOMB. 


B»;:t  by  Herod  the  Great,  but  bearing  the  name  of  Absalom  and  an  object  of  special  execration  =«""n«  tV  J'-s. 


286  DAVID'S   EESTOEATION. 

sympathy  of  his  native  tribe  through  the  two  chief  Priests. 
He  came  down  from  the  eastern  hills  to  the  banks  of  the 
Jordan.  A  ferry-boat,  or  a  bridge  of  boats,  was  in  readiness 
to  convey  the  King  across  the  river.  On  that  bridge,  fore- 
most in  his  professions  of  loyalty,  was  the  savage  Shimei  of 
Bahiirim,  '  first  of  the  house  of  Joseph,'  grovelling  in  peni- 
tence, and  there,  in  spite  of  Abishai's  ever-recurring  anger, 
won  from  David  the  oath  of  protection,  which,  in  word  at 
least,  the  King  kept  sacred  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Next  came 
the  unfortunate  Mephibosheth,  squalid  with  the  squalor  of  his  • 
untrimmed  moustache,  his  clothes  unwashed,  his  nails  un- 
pared,  his  long  hair  flowing  unshorn,  and  his  lame  feet  un- 
tended,  since  he  had  wrapt  himself  in  deep  mourning  on  the 
day  of  his  benefactor's  fall.  By  the  judgment — fau'  or  unfair 
— between  him  and  Ziba,  was  concluded  the  final  amnesty 
with  the  house  of  Saul.  There,  as  he  turned  away  from  the 
wild  and  hospitable  chiefs  who  had  befriended  him  in  his  exile, 
the  King  parted  reluctantly  from  the  aged  Gileadite  Barzillai, 
whom  he  vainly  tried  to  tempt  from  his  native  forests  to  the 
business  and  the  pleasures  of  the  court  of  Jerusalem.  Chim- 
ham  the  son  of  Barzillai  took  his  father's  place,  and,  with  hh 
descendants,  long  remained  in  Western  Palestine  a  witness 
of  the  loyalty  of  the  Eastern  tribes.  On  the  other  side  the 
river  stood  in  order  the  chiefs  of  Judah,  summoned  by  Zadok 
and  Abiathar,  to  welcome  back  the  '  flesh  of  their  flesh  and 
bone  of  their  bones,'  whom  they  had  basely  deserted.  With 
them,  the  King  entered  his  capital,  and  the  Restoration  of 
David  was  accomplished." 


CHAPTER   XX. 

CLOSING    EVENTS    OF    DAVID'S    REIGN  — PREPARATIONS    FOR 

THE   TEMPLE. 

Two  Minor  Rebellions — David  Falls  into  the  Usual  Ways  of  an  Oriental  Despot 
— Introduction  of  a  Strict  Military  Discipline — Heavy  Taxes  Laid  on  the 
People — The  King's  Favorites — Popular  Discontent — Sheba's  Rebellion — . 
The  Conscription  under  Joab — The  Penalty  Laid  on  David — Pestilence — Its 
Limits — The  Threshing-floor  of  Araunah — Mount  Moriah  —  David's  Pur- 
chase— Its  Consecration  to  a  New  Use — The  Present  Aspect  of  that  Thresh- 
ing-floor— Mosque  of  Omar — Access  to  it — The  Cavern  Beneath  the  Dome 
— Adonijah's  Rebellion — David  an  Old  Man — The  Royal  Succesaion — Death 
of  David — His  Burial — His  Sepulchre. 

j  HE  close  of  David's  reign  was  embittered  by  two 
other  rebellions,  neither  of  them  to  be  compared 
with  that  of  Absalom,  yet  both  of  them  formidable, 
and  indicative  of  the  relaxed  hold  of  the  King  upon  the  affec- 
tions of  his  subjects.  There  are  hints  enough  in  both  11. 
Samuel  and  I.  Chronicles,  that  David  in  his  old  age  adopted 
many  of  the  habits  and  customs  of  oriental  princes  in  general ; 
that  the  people  were  no  longer  permitted  to  live  in  a  state 
of  tranquillity  and  pursue  the  avocations  of  simple  pastoral 
life  ;  that  heavy  taxes  were  laid  upon  them  ;  that  a  strict  mili- 
tary discipline  was  introduced,  and  the  condition  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  remote  country  towns  and  villages  was  but  little 
removed  from  an  estate  of  servitude.  The  King  was  sur- 
rounded by  favorites  who  drank  up  the  hard  won  earnings  of 
the  people  like  water ;  and  the  capital  was  no  doubt  the  reser- 
voir, always  filling  up,  but  never  full,  whither  all  the  resources 
of  the  land  were  flowing.  Out  of  such  a  state  of  things  dis- 
content must  have  sprung,  and  David  must  have  been  greatly 


288  PRErARATION   FOR   A   CONSCRIPTION. 

changed  from  the  simple  Shepherd  King,  before  even  as  at-| 
tractive  a  personage  as  Absalom,  could  have  stolen  the  hearts] 
of  the  people  so  quickly.  It  probably  grew  worse  and  worse, 
because  even  this  undescribed  Sheba,  of  whom  we  merelj 
know  that  he  was  the  son  of  Bichri,  drew  the  whole  nation" 
to  him  at  once.  His  journey  northward  from  Jerusalem  to 
Abel,  under  the  shadow  of  Hermon  and  close  to  the  springs 
of  the  Jordan,  was  like  a  conqueror's  ovation.  Under  the  stern 
hand  of  Joab,  the  passing  rebellion  was  at  once  crushed,  and 
the  head  of  the  leader  brought  back  in  triumph  to  the  capital. 
No  one  thing  shows  the  growth  of  the  despotic  spirit  in  the 
heart  of  David  more  than  the  numbering  of  the  people  by 
Joab.  It  is  evident  that  this  was  not  a  census ;  it  was  not 
taken,  as  the  census  had  previously  been,  by  the  priests, 
but  by  a  military  commission,  of  which  Joab  was  the  head. 
It  was  probably  to  be  followed  by  a  conscription  and  the  en- 
rolling of  a  standing  army,  a  measure  absolutely  forbidden, 
tiot  only  by  the  spirit  but  by  the  letter  of  the  Mosaic  code. 
But  the  spirit  of  Joab,  stern  and  even  cruel  as  he  was  by 
nature,  was  in  this  thing  more  loyal  to  God  than  was  David. 
He  did  not  dare  to  refuse  to  obey,  but  he  carried  the  King's 
command  into  effect  very  unwillingly,  and  even  went  so  far 
as  to  entirely  pass  by  two  conspicuous  tribes,  and  not  to 
enroll  those  who  were  under  twenty  years  of  age.  The  re- 
sult of  the  enrollment,  (which  was  effected  in  nine  months 
and  twenty  days,)  is  given  differently  in  II.  Samuel  and 
I.  Chronicles,  but  taking  the  smallest  estimate,  it  is  clear 
that  David  was  lord  of  a  mighty  domain.  The  course  of 
Joab  is  given  in  the  record ;  and  we  can  clearly  trace  him, 
beginning  at  Aroer  in  Moab,  east  of  the  Jordan,  and  then 
passing  northward  through  the  hills  of  Gilead,  westward 
across  the  country  near  the  sources  of  the  Jordan,  up  to 
the  Coele  Syrian  valley,  and  thence  southward  till  he  reached 
Beersheba.  But  no  sooner  was  the  result  ascertained  and 
made  known  to  the  King,  when  his  faithful  chaplain,  the 
oft-mentioned  Gad,  charged  his  fault  upon  him,  and  threat- 


DAVID  S   CHOICE  OF   A   PENALTY. 


289 


ened  him  with  his  well  deserved  penalty.  David  was  to 
choose  between  three  years  of  famine,  three  months  of  de- 
feat at  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  and  three  days  of  pesti- 
lence. He  seems  to  have  feared  the  second  condition  more 
than  the  first  or  third,  and  under  that  feeling  to  have  uttered 
his  oft  quoted  words,  "  I  am  in  a  great  strait ;  let  us  fall  now 
into  the  hands  of  the  Lord,  for  his  mercies  are  great ;  and  let 
me  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  man."  The  evil  which  did  be- 
fall him  was  a  grievous  pestilence  which  did  not  cease  its 


A,NC[ENT  COINS. 
Such  as  those  paid  by  David  to  Araunah.    (See  also  p.  324 — 327.) 


ravages  till  it  had  carried  away  seventy  thousand  men.  It  did 
not  enter  the  city  however,  but  was  stayed  just  on  the  edge, 
after  advancing  as  far  as  the  hill  of  Moriah,  east  of  Mt.  Zion, 
and  separated  from  it  by  a  valley  afterwards  known  as  the 
Tyropoean  or  the  Yale  of  the  Cheesemongers.  This  hill, 
anciently  consecrated  by  the  attempted  sacrifice  of  Isaac  by 
Abraham,  was  then  in  the  possession  of  the  Jebusites  and 
their  King  Araanah,  or  Oman.    This  chieftain,  while  acknowl- 


290        PURCHASE   OF   ARAUNAH's   THRESHING-FLOOR. 

edging  himself  a  vassal  of  David,  lived  on  excellent  terms  with 
his  master,  and  showed  a  fine  spirit  of  kindness  and  loyalty 
in  the  transaction  which  has  made  his  name  immortal.  The 
plague  was  stayed  close  by  the  threshing-floor  of  Araunah,  on 
the  summit  of  Mount  Moriah.  This  threshing-floor  was  not 
made  of  clay  or  hard  baked  soil  thrown  up  in  a  gentle  mound, 
as  was  and  still  is  often  the  case  in  Palestine,  but  was  of 
rock,  slightly  smoothed  down  and  left  in  a  convex  form,  rising 
above  the  neighboring  earth.  Near  it  or  under  it  was  a  cave 
in  which  Araunah  used  to  deposit  the  grain  after  it  had  been 


SHEKELS.    • 


threshed  out  from  the  straw.  David,  with  that  fine  mingling 
of  courtesy  and  religion  which  characterized  him,  while  anxious 
to  secure  this  threshing-floor  to  build  an  altar  on,  was  unwilling 
to  accept  it  as  a  gift,  and  paid  for  it  a  sum,  which  although  dif- 
ferently told  in  II.  Samuel  and  I.  Chronicles  was  clearly  a  good, 
round  sum.  On  that  threshing-floor  David  erected  his  altar, 
and  sacrificed  to  God  in  commemoration  of  the  close  of  the  pesti- 
lence ;  and  the  spot  was  so  naturally  adapted  to  religious  uses, 
that  Solomon  erected  his  temple  upon  and  around  this  same 


THE   TEMPLES   BUILT   UPON   IT. 


291 


threshing-floor,  and  placed  the  great  altar  just  where  David  had 
set  his.  The  cavern  underneath,  where  Araunah,  the  politic 
Jebusite  chief  had  deposited  his  grain,  was  transformed  into  a 
conduit  for  conveying  away  the  blood  of  the  sacrifices,  and  an 
outlet  was  excavated  which  led  down  to  one  of  the  deep  ravines 
which  surround  Jerusalem.  After  Solomon's  temple  had 
passed  away,  Zerubbabel 
erected  his  temple  on  the 
same  spot;  subsequently 
Herod  reared  his  magnifi- 
cent structure  on  the  same 
site  ;  afterwards  Omar 
erected  the  noble  mosque 
which  bears  his  name, 
over  the  ancient  thresh- 
ing-floor of  Araunah ,  and 
beneath  that  beautiful 
dome  which  appears  in 
every  view  of  Jerusalem, 
and  which  is  familiar  to 
almost  every  child  in  this 
country,  there  can  still 
be  seen  the  ancient  stone, 
little  changed  in  all  proba- 
bility, from  the  form  which 
it  bore  in  the  time  of  Arau- 
nah and  David.  It  is  now 
surrounded  by  a  strong 
iron  fence  ;  and  no  Chris- 
tian  is    permitted   to  do 

more  than  reach  through  the  hand  and  touch  it.  Even  the  Jews, 
who  have  the  deepest  interest  in  it,  can  do  no  more  than  Chris- 
tians ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  latest  results  of  English  power  and 
diplomacy,  that  even  this  boon  has  been  granted  to  any  but 
Mahometans.  Down  to  the  time  of  the  Prince  of  Wales'  visit 
to  Palestine,  the  noble  building,  the  Dome  of  the  Rock  (Kub- 


PIECES  OF  SILVER,  HALF  SHEKELS. 


292  THE  THRESHING-FLOOR   AS    IT   NOW   IS. 

bit  es  Sakrah)  was  absolutely  closed  to  Europeans :  from  the 
crest  of  Olivet  people  were  allowed  to  look  down  upon  it,  and 
admire  the  beautiful  pavement ;  but  the  half  concealed  dag- 
gers of  the  swarthy  and  scowling  guard  at  the  gates,  hinted 
very  plainly  at  the  fate  which  would  meet  any  one  who  should 
attempt  to  enter  without  professing  the  Moslem  faith.  But 
since  the  triumph  of  General  Bruce's  diplomacy,  and  the  en- 
trance of  the  Prince  of  Wales'  party,  there  has  been  no  diffi- 
culty, and  now  the  payment  of  an  English  sovereign  (five 
dollars)  will  secure  entrance  for  any  well-dressed  Christian. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  spots  in  the  Holy  Land  ;  and 
what  is  remarkable,  it  is  equally  hallowed  in  the  eyes  of  Ma- 
hometan, Jew  and  Christian.  It  is  about  sixty  feet  by  forty, 
and  rises  in  a  mound-like  form  above  the  marble  pavement. 
At  the  edge  it  is  about  a  foot  above  the  surrounding-floor ;  in 
the  middle  it  is  about  five  feet  above  the  pavement.  Over  it 
is  the  beautiful  dome  which  is  so  conspicuous  in  all  views  of 
Jerusalem,  and  through  thousands  upon  thousands  of  panes 
of  brilliantly  colored  glass,  the  light  breaks  upon  the  rough, 
plain,  and  ancient  threshing-floor  of  Araunah  the  Jebusite. 
One  can  go  down  into  the  cavern  beneath  it ;  and  a  country- 
man of  ours.  Dr.  Barclay,  has  crawled  through  the  conduit 
and  found  that  it  led  him  to  the  Fountain  of  the  Virgin  in 
the  Valley  of  Jehoshaphat. 

The  revolt  of  Adonijah  never  arose  to  the  dignity  of  Absa- 
lom's, or  even  Sheba's  rebellion.  He  was  the  oldest  surviving 
son  of  David,  a  man  of  fine  presence  and  of  an  ambitious 
nature.  He  was  aided  by  the  invaluable  alliance  of  Joab  and 
Abiathar,  the  high  priest.  Why  Joab  deserted  his  master  at 
last,  is  not  told :  but  I  can  not  help  thinking  that  at  last  the 
King's  military  and  despotic  tendencies  had  gone  too  far  for 
even  the  loyal  and  well  tried  Joab,  and  drove  even  him  into 
the  service  of  the  son.  Besides,  David  was  now  an  old  man, 
and  would  not  long  hold  out;  the  question  of  a  successor 
could  not  be  greatly  deferred,  and  it  seems  probable  that 
Joab  wished  to  cast  the  scale  in  favor  of  Adonijah,  and  against 


18 


294  THE    DEATH   OF   DAVID. 

the  youthful  and  aspiring  Solomon,  by  throwing  his  own  in- 
fluence in  favor  of  the  former.  But  Nathan  was  siill  faithful 
to  the  King,  and  Batlisheba,  a  pushing,  crafty,  and  aspiring 
woman,  under  the  influence,  also,  of  fear  that  in  case  of 
Adonijah's  success,  both  she  and  her  son  would  be  put  to 
death,  joined  with  Nathan  in  endeavoring  to  get  the  move 
on  Adonijah,  and  have  Solomon  made  king.  The  thing  was 
laid  before  David  in  a  shrewd  manner,  and  the  King  showed 
a  vigor  and  decision  worthy  of  his  best  days.  The  proclama- 
tion of  Solomon  down  in  the  valley  of  Gihon,  brought  the 
ambitious  project  of  Adonijah  to  grief,  and  placed  Solomon 
without  a  rival  at  the  head  of  the  kingdom. 

The  death  of  David  followed  shortly  after.  The  old  King 
passed  away  at  the  age  of  seventy,  completely  worn  out. 
The  decrepitude  of  his  last  years  is  clearly  hinted  at  in  the 
opening  of  I.  Kings,  yet  his  closing  words,  are  full  of  his  old 
power,  trust  in  God  and  deep  feeling.  We  have  as  the  rec- 
ord of  his  spiritual  activity  at  that  time,  the  glorious  strain 
recorded  in  II.  Samuel,  chapter  twenty-second,  and  repeated 
almost  word  for  word  in  the  eighteenth  Psalm  ;  one  of  the  no- 
blest poems  in  the  world.  The  brief  parting  strain  in  II. 
Samuel,  twenty-third  chapter,  is  very  beautiful,  tender  and 
thoughtful,  and  blends  together  well  the  lofty  aspirations  and 
the  imperfect  attainment  of  David's  character.  The  seventy- 
second  Psalm,  which  is  declared  to  be  the  last  that  David  wrote, 
is  one  of  the  finest,  if  not  the  very  finest  of  all  the  Psalms, 
and  shows  that  his  poetic  fire  was  unquenched  to  the  last. 
Yet  more  tender  and  touching  are  the  words  recorded  in  the 
closing  chapters  of  I.  Chronicles,  in  -which  David  addresses 
his  son  Solomon,  and  prays  for  his  weal ;  and  even  those 
who  are  not  sensible  of  the  grandeur  of  the  eighteenth  and 
seventy-second  Psalms,  can  not  fail  to  be  struck  by  the  pathos 
and  beauty  of  his  parting  words  to  Solomon. 

David  was  buried  in  the  very  city  which  he  had  conquered 
and  re-erected  ;  on  the  summit  of  Mt.  Zion.  The  tomb,  which 
was  also  the  resting-place  of  Solomon  and  several  subsequent 


HIS   BUKIAL-PLACE.  295 

kings,  was  in  perfect  condition  in  New  Testament  times,  and 
is  referred  to  by  the  apostle  Peter.  Its  site  is  still  pointed 
out,  on  the  southern  part  of  Mt.  Zion,  outside  of  the  modern 
wall  of  the  city,  and  in  close  proximity  to  the  Armenian,  the 
English,  and  the  American  burying-ground.  The  room  over 
the  reputed  tomb  of  David  is  of  great  antiquity ;  and  an  old 
tradition  asserts  that  in  it  the  Apostles  met  and  celebrated 
tjie  Lord's  Supper  ;  hence  the  name  of  the  room,  the  Coenaou- 
lum ;  hence  also,  the  old  name  of  the  whole  building,  the  Church 
of  the  Apostles.  There  seems  to  be  but  little  doubt  that  in  a 
cavern  beneath  that  ancient  Christian  church,  lie  the  remains  of 
David.  It  is  ardently  to  be  wished  that  in  our  day  thorough 
investigations  might  be  made  there,  and  that  we  might  learn 
whether  the  mighty  founder  of  Jerusalem  lies  just  there  or 
not.  There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  a  thorough  search 
would  bring  to  light  the  tombs  of  the  kings  ;  for  the  so-called 
"  Tombs  of  the  Kings  "  lying  a  mile  or  so  north  of  the  city, 
are  known  to  be  of  comparatively  modern  date. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

SOLOMON'S  CHARACTER  AND  EARLIER  ACTS. 

The  Reign  of  Solomon  a  Contrast  to  that  of  David — Change  in  the  Public 
Tastes — Not  Much  of  Shepherd  Life  Left  in  the  Royal  Home — David's  Pal- 
ace a  Simple  House  Judged  by  Solomon's  Stan<lard — ^Not  Altogether  an 
Advance  from  David's  to  Solomon's  Time,  but  Rather  a  Fall — No  Increase  in 
Faith  and  Purity — An  Epoch  of  Effeminacy — Solomon  a  Believer  in  the 
Visible — His  Life  Pitched  to  a  Much  Lower  Key  tlian  that  of  David — The 
Influences  Around  His  Youth  —  His  Crafty  and  Ambitious  Mother  —  The 
Realm  He  Found  Himself  Master  of — Its  Extent  and  Boundary  Lines — His 
First  Act  one  of  Destruction — His  Marriage  into  the  Royal  House  of  Egypt 
— ^Mighty  Contrast  Between  Moses'  Time  and  Solomon's — The  Effect  of  the 
Egyptian  Alliance — Tiie  Compact  with  Hiram  of  Tyre — The  Officers  of 
Solomon's  Household. 

[he  reign  of  Solomon  stands  in  marked  contrast  to 
that  of  his  father  David ;  and  yet  it  was  in  some 
respects  the  natural  product  and  legitimate  result 
of  it.  The  change  in  the  national  character  was  very  like  that 
which  we  witness  between  the  days  of  our  grandfathers  and 
our  own.  In  David's  time  the  taste  for  fine  buildings  had 
hardly  begun  ;  it  was  an  era  of  simple  tastes  and  manners. 
The  King,  whose  early  life  had  been  passed  in  rural  simplicity, 
never  lost  the  mark  of  the  shepherd  boy  career ;  and  although 
he  built  himself  a  palace,  it  was  no  such  building  as  Solomon 
erected  for  himself;  and  the  temple  which  David  projected, 
was  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  profound  religion,  and  not  in 
that  of  a  passionate  love  of  magnificence.  It  is  a  great  drop 
from  the  time  of  David  to  that  of  Solomon ;  some  might  call 
it  advance,  but  not  so  does  it  seem  to  me.  For  although  there 
was  a  great  increase  of  luxury  and  in  what  in  the  fashionable 
language  of  modern  times  is  called  "  refinement,"  still  there 


Solomon's  character.  297 

was  no  increase  in  faith,  purity,  nobleness  ;  the  vast  accessions 
of  wealth  brought  in  corruption  and  all  kinds  of  social  evils ; 
and  the  state  of  morals  reflected  in  the  book  of  Proverbs  indi- 
cates that  Jerusalem  fell  then  into  a  state  of  degradation 
hardly  surpassed  by  the  most  profligate  capitals  of  modern 
times.  The  epoch  of  David  had  the  more  roughness,  but  that 
of  Solomon  had  the  more  effeminacy.  David  was  a  man  whose 
whole  life  was  founded  in  the  fear  of  God ;  and  out  of  that 
fear  sprang  his  songs,  as  naturally  as  those  which  a  bird  war- 
bles on  a  mild  June  day.  No  adversity  was  sharp  enough  to 
extinguish  the  flame  of  his  piety ;  it  burned  all  the  brighter, 
the  more  it  came  under  the  influence  of  chilling  fortunes  ;  and 
great  as  was  his  genius,  and  noble  as  were  his  talents,  his  re- 
ligiousness was  the  strongest  trait  in  his  character.  But  Solo- 
mon was  quite  different  in  this ;  with  more  prudence  and 
sagacity  and  worldly  wisdom  than  his  father,  he  had  far  less 
of  faith  in  unseen  things.  He  was  the  type  of  the  realists  of 
our  day,  as  David  is  the  type  of  the  men  of  faith  in  the  earlier 
history  of  our  country.  Solomon  believed  in  what  he  could 
see  and  handle  ;  and  although  the  prayer  which  he  offered  at 
the  dedication  of  the  temple,  is  a  grand  and  comprehensive 
utterance,  yet  it  requu-ed  all  the  solemnity  which  was  concen- 
trated in  that  hour  to  draw  from  him  such  a  burst  of  piety. 
The  rest  of  his  life  was  pitched  to  a  much  lower  key  ;  and  the 
magnificence  of  the  temple  was  rather  the  manifestation  of 
his  pride  than  of  his  religion.  He  who  loved  ostentation  and 
magnificence,  was  only  too  well  pleased  with  this  opportunity 
of  exhibiting  it  under  the  guise  of  an  offering  to  his  Lord. 

Solomon  grew  up  under  influences  which  were  far  from 
uniform,  and  which  made  him  the  broken,  fragmentary  char- 
acter that  he  was.  From  David  he  inherited  his  prudence, 
his  talents,  and  his  sagacity ;  from  Nathan  his  instructor,  he 
probably  received  the  elements  of  morality,  and  the  influence 
of  a  firm,  and  uncompromising  obedience  to  God ;  while  to 
his  mother,  we  have  no  reason  to  think  that  he  could  have 
been  indebted  for  anything  good.     An  ambitious,  artful,  push- 


298  THE   NATURE   HE   INHERITED. 

ing  woman,  loving  pomp,  luxury,  power,  capable  of  being  an 
accomplice  in  a  great  act  of  gin  and  shame,  she  must  have 
been  anything  but  a  faithful  mother.  Devoted  to  her  son's 
worldly  advancement,  she  had  been  a  prime  mover  in  sup- 
pressing Adonijah's  rebellion,  and  had  placed  her  son  on  the 
throne  at  a  time  when  it  seemed  hopelessly  lost  to  him;  but  noth- 
insr  that  we  know  of  her  leads  us  to  believe  that  her  influence 
could  have  been  a  helpful  one  in  the  training  of  a  good  and 
virtuous  son.  From  her  he  seems  to  have  inherited  his  love 
of  luxury,  power,  magnificence,  his  easy  temper,  his  sensu- 
ousness,  and  no  small  part  of  his  worldly  wisdom.  Surrounded 
by  these  influences,  it  is  not  strange  that  Solomon  became 
what  he  was.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  or  twenty  he  found  him- 
self master  of  one  of  the  greatest  empires  in  the  world,  the 
rival  of  Egypt,  the  superior  of  Assyria,  and  probably  of 
Phoenicia  also.  He  felt  the  burden  which  his  father  had  left 
to  him  to  be  a  heavy  one ;  and  looking  over  his  vast  domains, 
which  extended  northward  to  Hamath,  high  up  in  the  Leb- 
anon range,  eastward  to  the  Euphrates,  southward  to  the  Ara- 
bian desert,  and  westward  to  Egypt,  he  felt  the  need  of 
wisdom,  and  he  asked  God  for  what  was  evidently  his  most 
urgent  necessity.  And,  to  quote  the  expression  of  another, 
"he  became  wise  because  he  had  set  his  heart  on  wisdom." 
It  is  an  evident  sign  of  his  precocity  that  he  did  not  plunge 
at  once  into  a  young  man's  revelries,  and  destroy  himself  with 
lust ;  but  that  he  set  himself  to  the  great  work  of  governing 
his  great  empire  wisely  and  well. 

His  fir^  act  was  to  destroy  the  men  who  had  seemtsd  to 
David  to  be  dangerous  to  the  young  king.  One  of  them  was 
Adonijah,  his  older  brother,  who  had  apparently  as  great  hold 
on  the  popular  heart  as  Absalom  had  had  before  him,  and 
whom  not  even  the  sanctity  of  the  altar  had  been  able  to  save. 
Another  was  Joab,  whose  stern  fidelity  to  David  at  last  gave 
way,  and  who  had  become  a  partisan  of  Adonijah's,  and  a  foe 
to  Solomon.  Another  was  that  vile  offshoot  of  the  house  of 
Saul,  Shimei,  whose  insults  were  fresh  in  the  remembrance  of 


HIS   MARRIAGE   WlTH   AN   EGYPTIAN    PRINCESS.        299 

David,  and  who  was  considered  a  dangerous  person  to  have 
near  the  young  King.  I  do  not  think  that  it  was  cruelty  which 
dictated  to  David  or  Solomon  the  necessity  of  putting  these 
men  out  of  the  way  ;  but  the  danger  which  a  prince  so  young 
would  always  be  liable  to  incur  at  their  hands. 

The  first  act  of  Solomon's  career  which  indicates  that  he 
was  determined  to  purchase  the  extension  of  his  power  by 
peaceful  means,  was  his  marrying  an  Egyptian  princess.  It  is  an 
act  which  may  well  fill  us  with  amazement ;  that  a  man  sprung 
from  a  race  which  but  five  hundred  years  before  had  left  the 
Egyptian  soil  as  slaves,  should  now  aspire  to  the  hand  of  the 
daughter  of  the  Egyptian  King.  Such  a  change  had  rarely 
been  effected  any  where  else.  The  Hebrew  slaves  who  went 
out  of  Egypt  were  probably  in  a  far  more  degraded  state  as 
compared  with  their  masters  than  were  our  own  slaves  before 
the  rebellion ;  and  the  rise  from  that  estate  to  the  condition 
of  strength  and  prosperity  in  which  they  were  at  the  time  of 
Solomon,  was  immensely  great.  At  the  time  of  the  Exodus 
such  a  thing  would  seem  the  greatest  of  impossibilities,  but  it 
came  to  pass  at  last.  Under  David's  reign,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  the  empire  had  extended  till  in  area  it  was  much  before 
Egypt ;  and  it  was  probably  superior  in  many  elements  to  any 
power  then  existing  on  the  Euphrates  or  the  Tigris.  The  al- 
liance by  marriage  appears  to  have  been  entered  into  without 
any  hindrance  on  the  part  of  the  Egyptian  government ;  and 
not  a  word  is  dropped  in  the  sacred  narrative  which  would 
indicate  that  the  match  was  regarded  as  an  unequal  one.  The 
queen,  although  not  the  first  wife  whom  Solomon  married, 
took  precedence  over  all  the  rest  in  point  of  rank,  and  he 
built  for  her  a  palace  which  must  have  been  one  of  the  finest 
buildings  in  the  world  at  the  time  of  its  erection.  It  does  not 
appear  that  the  queen  brought  her  idolatry  with  her,  and  that 
Solomon  erected  any  temple  for  her  to  worship  in  ;  no  mention 
is  made  of  her  relation  to  religion ;  and  it  was  not  till  a  sub- 
sequent period  that  he  established  altars  and  shrines  in  honor 
of  the  divinities  which  his  marriages  with  heathen  princesses 


300  Solomon's  stewards. 

brought  into  vogue  in  his  capital.  The  alliance  with  Egypt 
must  have  been  prolific  in  results  however ;  it  no  doubt  made 
Egyptian  science,  art,  household  customs  and  the  like,  current 
in  Jerusalem  if  not  in  Palestine,  and  must  have  exerted  a 
powerful  influence  not  only  on  the  court  but  also  on  the  people. 

Quite  as  prolific  in  results  probably  was  the  alliance  with 
Hiram  the  king  of  Tyre.  This  city,  the  chief  seat  doubtless 
of  the  Phoenician  territory,  had  exerted  a  strong  influence  over 
the  habits  of  the  tribes  of  Asher  and  Naphtali ;  for  during 
David's  day  there  had  been  a  very  friendly  state  of  relations 
between  the  Jewish  and  the  Phcenician  monarch.  Tyre  was 
a  great  trading  city,  sending  fleets  to  all  parts  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  also  around  Africa  it  would  appear,  and  bringing 
back  by  this  circuitous  way  the  rich  products  of  Southern 
Africa  and  the  coasts  of  Asia.  Tja-e  could  supply  Israel  with 
the  finest  works  of  arts ;  and  in  return  could  receive  the  agri- 
cultural products  of  Palestine.  While  art  was  at  a  discount 
in  Israel,  of  course  there  could  be  no  reciprocal  relations  be- 
tween the  neighboring  powers ;  but  when  David  and  still 
more  when  Solomon  began  to  want  the  finest  products  which 
the  world  afforded,  of  course  there  was  an  immediate  devel- 
opment of  commerce. 

The  list  of  officers  whom  Solomon  appointed  to  supply  his 
table  is  given  with  much  detail,  and  the  places  whence  they 
drew  their  supplies,  as  well  as  the  extent  of  the  supplies 
which  they  provided,  are  stated  with  marked  exactness.  The 
places  over  which  they  were  set,  are  all  noted  for  their  fertil- 
ity ;  almost  all  of  them  are  known  at  the  present  day,  nearly 
enough  at  all  events,  to  show  that  in  supplying  the  royal  table 
Solomon  had  strict  regard  to  the  most  fertile  districts  in  his 
realm.  It  would  he  worth  while  for  the  reader  to  turn  to  the 
fourth  chapter  of  I.  Kings,  and  to  look  up  the  places  there 
with  the  help  of  a  Bible  dictionary ;  he  would  soon  see  that 
every  one  of  these  places  there,  shows  even  now,  in  all  the 
neglect  which  has  come  upon  Palestine,  that  then  Solomon 
was  taxing  the  best  parts  of  his  domains.     Of  course  the 


S02  HIS   LUXURIOUS   TABLE. 

twenty-eight  thousand  pounds  of  bread  which  were  made  and 
the  unreckoned  number  of  pounds  of  meat  which  were  con- 
sumed were  not  for  the  royal  table  alone,  but  were  for  the 
general  use  of  the  court  and  the  garrison  at  Jerusalem; 
amounting  in  all  to  twelve  or  fourteen  thousand  men.  Still 
the  tax  was  a  very  onerous  one,  and  weighed  down  heavily 
upon  the  people,  producing  no  doubt,  very  serious  discontent. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

SOLOMON'S  ARCHITECTURAL  AND  OTHER  PUBLIC  WORKS. 

The  Erection  of  the  Temple — Planned  by  David,  but  Executed  by  Solomon — 
Relation  of  Its  Size  to  that  of  the  Tabernacle — The  Temple  About  the  Size 
of  a  Moderately  Large  Village  Church — Its  Divisions — Its  Sacred  Vessels — 
The  Gold  Used  in  Its  Floor  and  Sides — The  Fame  of  the  Edifice— The  Foun- 
dation Stones  Which  now  Remain — Their  Great  Size — Other  Remains — Solo- 
mon's Palace — The  Armory — The  House  of  the  Forest  of  Lebanon — The 
Porch  of  Pillars — Magnificence  of  all  these  Structures — Adornment  of  the 
Suburbs  of  Jerusalem — The  Pools  of  Solomon — The  Aqueduct — The  Fortifi- 
cations Which  He  Built — Palmyra — Solomon's  Drain  upon  the  Resources  of 
his  Subjects — The  Establishment  of  a  Navy  in  the  Red  Sea — Trade  With 
Ophir— Where  was  Ophir— The  "  Ships  of  Tarshish"— The  Queen  of  Sheba 
— Solomon's  Administration — His  Mistakes. 


HE  erection  of  the  temple  was  the  most  signal'  event 
in- the  reign  of  Solomon.  It  had  been  planned  even 
in  its  minutest  details  by  David,  who  had  also 
amassed  a  large  part  of  the  treasures  which  would  be  required 
in  its  erection.  But  the  incessant  wars  of  David  prevented 
his  entering  upon  the  work  in  person ;  and  so  down  to  the 
close  of  his  reign,  the  people  had  no  other  sanctuary  than  the 
ancient  tent.  The  temple  was  to  retain  the  same  general  ar- 
rangement which  had  characterized  the  tabernacle,  which  in 
its  turn,  was  conformed  to  the  general  arrangement  of  an 
Egyptian  temple.  The  number  of  cubits  which  entered  into 
the  structure  of  Solomon's  edifice,  was  in  the  case  of  each 
apartment  exactly  twice  that  which  was  in  the  respective  apart- 
ments of  the  tabernacle.  And  yet,  with  this  enlargement,  the 
temple  was  very  small,  judged  by  our  modern  standard.  It 
was  about  the  size  of  a  moderately  large  village  church,  al- 
though differently  proportioned.     It  was  long  and  narrow,  the 


804 


SOLOMON  S   TEMPLE. 


length  of  the  wliole  edifice  being  ninety  feet,  and  the  breadth 
thirty.  This  was  divided  into  two  parts,  the  Most  Holy  Place 
and  the  Holy  Place,  while  at  the  front  was  the  porch,  flanked 
by  the  two  ornate  and  much  admired  pillars,  Jachin  and  Boaz, 
and  at  the  sides  were  the  small  chambers  for  the  priests.  The 
worship  was  not  conducted  within  the  temple ;  the  people 
stood  in  the  great  court  on  the  outside  which  was  suiTOunded 
b}^  a  fence  of  some  sort.  On  this  open  square  stood  the  great 
altar  and  the  huge  laver  used  in  the  ablutions  of  the  priests. 
Within  the  Most  Holy  Place,  which  no  human  being  but  the 
high  priest  could  enter,  and  even  he  only  once  a  year,  there 

was  no  object  but 
the  old  weather-beat- 
en chest  which  con- 
tained the  two  gran- 
ite slabs  on  which 
the  Law  had  been  en- 
graved, and  the  two 
colossal-winged 
"  cherubims  "  Avho 
stood  over  them, 
reaching  with  their 
outstretched  pinions 
fi'om  one  wall  to  the 
other.  Within  the 
Holy  Place  were  the  tables  for  the  shew-bread,.  the  altar  of  in- 
cense, and  much  of  the  furniture  used  on  great  ceremonial  oc- 
casions. 

The  chief  feature  of  the  temple  was  the  gold  which  was 
used  in  plating  its  floor  and  its  sides.  This  must  have  been 
visible  from  a  great  distance,  and  any  one  standing  even  on 
the  shores  of  the  Jordan  and  in  the  immediate  neighborhood 
of  the  Dead  Sea,  must  have  been  able  to  have  caught  the 
bright  reflection  of  the  burnished  temple  walls  at  Jerusalem. 
And  it  gave  a  costliness  to  the  structure  too,  which  must  have 
made  it  renowned  throughout  the  world.     No  doubt  the  build- 


TABLE  OF  SHEW-BREAD. 
From  Bas-Reiief  on  the  arch  of  Titus. 


REMAINS   OF   THE  TEMPLE. 


305 


ing  of  Solomon's  temple  and  the  other  edifices  constructed  at 
the  same  time,  must  have  been  the  great  event  of  that  age.  The 
fame  of  them  must  have  reacked  not  only  to  Egypt,  but  have 
extended  throughout  the  countries  on  the  Tigris  and  the  Eu- 
phrates. It  might  have  gone,  and  probably  did,  to  Greece, 
and  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  Parthenon  was  the  direct  ar- 
chitectural outgrowth  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  Wherever 
Tyrian  ships  went  there  must  have  been  a  knowledge  of  the 
wonderful  works  of  Solomon. 

Of  that  renowned  temple,  only  a  part  of  the  foundation 

stones  remain.  Those  gi- 
gantic blocks  wliich  un- 
derlie the  pavement  of 
the  Mosque  of  Omar,  and 
which  attract  universal 
attention  and  win  uni- 
versal admiration,  are  un- 
questionably the  product 
of  Solomon's  age.  The 
largest  of  them  measure 
about  twenty-nine  and  a 
half  feet  long,  and  are  of 
proportionate  depth  and 
breadth.  They  are  but 
about  half  the  length, 
however,  of  the  stupendous  blocks  at  Baalbeck,  whose  size  is 
the  wonder  of  the  world.  The  quarries  from  wldch  the  Je- 
rusalem stones  were  taken  were  partly  at  Bethlehem,  and  partly 
from  directly  under  the  northern  part  of  the  present  city. 
Near  the  Damascus,  or  northern  gate,  a  subterranean  passage 
has  been  discovered  recently,  which  guides  to  the  very  quarry 
whence  the  huge  blocks  were  taken  for  Solomon's  Temple ; 
and  in  the  sides,  one  can  see  even  now  the  great  vacant  spaces 
which  correspond  with  the  stones  still  to  be  seen  in  the  wall 
of  the  harem.  It  is  one  of  the  most  curious  sights  in  all  the 
round  of  modern  travel,  the  very  chippings  of  the  masons  as 


GOLDEN  CANDLESTICK. 


THE   ARMOURY. 


807 


they  worked  out  the  massive  blocks  for  the  foundations  of  tlie 
temple. 

The  temple  was  not  the  only  one  of  Solomon's  magnificent 
structures;  for  in  addition  to  the  temple  whose  proportions 
were  by  no  means  extensive,  as  has  already  been  seen,  he 
erected  hard  by,  although  on  a  site  not  fully  known  to  us,  a 
palace,  Avhich  although  not  described  with  great  minuteness, 
must  have  been  one  of  the  wonders  of  that  age.  It  was  a 
composite  structure,  and  cannot  be  perfectly  imagined,  inas- 
much as  no  detailed  description  has  been  given  to  us.  It  con- 
sisted of  three  chief  parts,  the  Ai-moury,  or  as  it  is  called  in 

the  Bible,  the  House 
of  the  Forest  of  Leb- 
anon, deriving  its  name 
doubtless  from  the  ce- 
dar wood  which  entered 
into  its  structure ;  the 
Porch  of  Pillars,  doubt- 
less the  most  costly  and 
magnificent  part  of  the 
whole,  and  the  place 
where  the  King  sat  on 
occasions  of  state,  and 
gave  judgment.  Be 
.  sides  these,  and  occupy- 
ing another  site  of  the  spacious  court,  was  the  mansion  or 
palace  erected  solely  for  the  use  of  the  Egyptian  princess  whom 
he  had  married,  and  who  became  the  first  in  all  his  long  list  of 
queens.  Besides  these  palaces  was  doubtless  the  general  ha- 
rem and  the  edifices  devoted  to  the  King  and  the  officers  of  the 
court.  Into  the  structure  of  this  congeries  of  magnifi- 
cent palaces,  gold  and  costly  woods  entered  as  freely  as 
into  the  temple.  The  time  occupied  by  the  erection  of 
the  palace  was  greater  by  four  years  than  had  been  needed 
for  the  temple,  the  latter  requiring  but  seven  years,  the 
former  no  less  than  eleven.      It  must  have  been  the  won- 


ALTAR  OF  BURNT  OFFERING. 


808         IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  SUBURBS. 

der  of  the  age.  We  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  Egypt  or 
any  of  the  powers  then  existing  on  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris, 
produced  at  that  epoch,  anything  to  be  compared  with  the 
structures  which  Solomon  erected.  The  sacred  writer  descants 
with  evident  enthusiasm  upon  the  glories  of  the  work,  the 
like  of  which  no  page  of  his  national  history  could  show,  and 
the  like  of  which  no  land  on  the  earth  could  boast. 

In  addition  to  these  works  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  Solo- 
mon did  much  to  adorn  the  immediate  suburbs,  besides  build- 
ing a  summer  palace  up  on  the  Lebanon  mountains,  whence 
he  could  withdraw  from  the  heats  of  his  capital.  In  Wady 
Urtas,  near  Bethlehem,  and  at  Etam,  hard  by,  can  be  seen  the 
remains  of  Solomon's  magnificent  works  ;  the  aqueduct  which 
carried  water  to  Jerusalem,  the  huge  tanks  or  reservoirs  in 
which  he  husbanded  his  supplies  for  the  uTigation  of  his 
gardens  there.  These  have  been  fully  described  by  Dr.  Rob- 
inson, and  others  who  have  written  with  detail  regarding  the 
antiquities  of  Palestine.  The  aqueduct  which  Solomon  built 
was  afterwards  repaired  by  Pontius  Pilate,  in  the  time  of  our 
Savior.  It  afterwards  fell  into  great  neglect,  but  was  at 
length  restored  by  one  of  the  Mahometan  governers  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  made  to  do  duty  again.  Its  course  can  be  traced 
nearly  all  the  way,  and  very  interesting  explorations  have 
been  made  of  late  years,  to  discover  where  it  entered  the  city 
and  how  the  water  was  distributed  for  the  purposes  of  general 
supply.  But  of  Solomon's  fine  roads  which  he  constructed 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Jerusalem,  no  traces  remain.  The 
luxuriance  of  Wady  Urtas  tells  the  story  faintly  of  the  gar- 
dens in  which  he  once  delighted,  and  whose  fragrance  fills 
the  song  which  bears  Solomon's  name ;  but  his  driveways 
have  all  been  allowed  to  pass  into  then-  old  roughness.  Had 
the  neighborhood  of  Jerusalem  been  less  intractable  than  it 
is,  the  works  which  he  laid  out  beyond  the  walls  of  his  capital 
would  have  been  more  extensive  than  they  were  ;  for  no  city 
of  note  exists  in  the  world,  I  suppose,  vhose  immediate 
neighborhood  offers  less  inducement  to  the  gardener   than 


19 


I 


310  NEW   FORTIFICATIONS. 

does  that  of  Jerusalem.  Only  the  resources  of  Solomon 
could  have  affected  anything  in  such  a  tangled  mass  of  rocks. 
Yet  that  he  had  his  driveways  and  his  gardens  is  plain,  but  we 
find  little  now  which  bears  the  marks  of  his  hand. 

Besides  these  works  of  art  he  was  busily  engaged  in  com- 
pleting strong  fortifications,  erected  at  just  the  points  where  he 
was  most  assailable.  One  of  these  was  Hazor,  a  place  which 
long  ago  claimed  our  attention  in  connection  with  Joshua, 
and  which  was  the  head-quarters  of  two  armies  which  under 
the  command  of  two  kings,  both  bearing  the  family  name  of 
Jabin,  resisted  the  arms  of  Israel.  Lying  as  it  unquestionably 
did  at  the  sources  of  the  Jordan,  and  beneath  the  snow  crest 
of  the  mighty  Hermon,  it  was  the  strategic  point  Avhich  must 
be  taken  by  an  army  coming  from  Damascus  and  the  country 
adjacent.  All  such  armies  must  pass  the  southern  limit  of 
Lebanon  and  Anti-Lebanon  ranges,  and  hence  the  refortifica- 
tion  of  Hazor.  One  was  Tadmor,  a  place  wliich  is  supposed 
to  be  identical  with  the  later  Palmyra,  and  which,  if  so,  lay 
on  the  great  caravan  route  between  Palestine  and  the  Eu- 
phrates. The  fortification  of  Tadmor  would  defend  the 
kingdom  from  any  unexpected  attacks  on  the  east.  On  the 
south-west  he  built  Gezer,  near  the  Eg3^ptian  frontier,  and 
refortified  Bethoron  the  Nether,  which  lay  at  the  western 
outlet  of  the  most  important  pass  from  Jerusalem  down  into 
the  plain  of  Philistia.  At  the  base  of  the  northern  edge  of 
the  gentle  hills  of  Manasseh,  where  they  touch  the  plain  of 
Jezreel  or  Esdraelon,  he  fortified  Migiddo,  and  so  made  Jeru- 
salem secure,  in  case  an  army  should  press  by  Hazor,  far  to 
the  north.  Besides  this  he  strengthened  the  citadel  of  Jeru- 
salem, bearing  the  name  of  Millo,  whose  precise  situation  and 
character  are  unknown  to  us. 

In  order  to  accomplish  his  great  works  Solomon  drew  not 
only  upon  his  own  subjects,  but  still  more  upon  the  ancient 
tribes  of  the  land.  Not  even  under  David  had  any  very  severe 
burdens  been  laid  upon  the  primitive  races  of  Palestine,  the 
Hittites,  Hivitesj  Perizzites,  and   Amorites,  etc.;   they  had 


NAVY   IN   THE   RED    SEA.  311 

been  treated  very  leniently,  paying  some  tribute  to  their  nomi- 
nal masters,  but  not  ground  down  to  any  estate  of  degrading 
servitude.  But  under  Solomon  all  this  was  changed ;  and 
while  we  see  but  30,000  Israelites  compelled  to  work  in  Leba- 
non, in  getting  out  cedars  for  the  temple,  and  these  in  relays 
of  10,000,  working  a  month  each,  the  original  population  of 
the  country  was  drafted  to  the  amount  of  153,000,  and  com- 
pelled to  work  without  intermission. 

The  establishment  of  a  navy  in  the  Red  Sea  was  one  of  the 
great  acts  of  Solomon's  reign.  The  range  of  mountains  lying 
between  the  Dead  Sea,  and  the  eastern  arm  of  the  Red  Sea, 
the  Gulf  of  Akabah,  had  been  subjugated  by  David,  and  there 
was  no  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  surviving  Edomites  to 
the  employment  of  caravans  to  traverse  the  Arabah  valley, 
and  bring  into  Palestine  whatever  merchandise  might  be 
brought  by  ship  from  the  East  and  landed  at  the  northern  ex- 
tremity of  the  Red  Sea.  At  that  point  lay  the  two  towns  of 
Ezion-geber  and  Elath,  known  as  places  of  encampment  as  far 
back  as  the  time  of  the  Fctrty  Years'  Wandering,  but  never 
emerging  above  the  place  of  squalid  villages.  Now,  however, 
they  were  promoted  to  higher  uses.  They  became  ports  of  de- 
parture for  India,  and  thither  Hiram  sent  artisans  to  construct 
a  fleet  for  Solomon,  and  sailors  to  man  it  when  it  should  be 
completed.  Hitherto  the  Phoenicians  had  extended  their 
voyages  westward  to  the  various  ports  of  the  Mediterranean, 
but  now  they  could  use  a  part  of  their  maratime  resources  in 
traversing  the  Indian  Ocean.  It  was  of  course  a  gain  to  both 
Solomon  and  Hiram.  The  Hebrew  king  gained  by  this  means 
access  to  the  richest  parts  of  the  East,  and  the  Tyrian  monarch 
shared  in  the  wealth  which  was  thus  brought  into  the  country. 
It  was  the  opening  of  a  great  chapter  in  the  story  of  Solo- 
mon's magnificence.  True,  Egypt,  T}Te,  and  Syria  had  done 
much  for  him ;  but  they  had  not  been  able  to  sate  his  thirst 
for  gold,  spices,  and  all  kinds  of  costly  ornaments  and  articles 
of  luxury.  These  must  be  drawn  from  India.  And  to  this 
end  the  construction  of  a  fleet  was  indispensable. 


312  OPHIK    AND  TARSHISH. 

With  this  fleet  Solomon  was  ahle  to  receive  the  riches  of 
the  East,  and  to  carry  on  a  protracted  commerce  with  Ophir. 
And  where,  the  reader  will  enquire,  was  Ophir  ?  Many  an- 
swers have  been  given  to  this  question.  Some  have  gone  so 
far  in  ridiculous  hypotheses  as  to  suppose  that  it  was  Peru ; 
that  the  second  syllable  of  Ophir  is  to  be  found  retained  in 
the  first  syllable  of  Peru.  But  such  a  supposition  is  evidently 
absurd.  More  reasonable  by  far,  were  the  conjectures  which 
were  held  during  the  past  century,  that  Ophir  lay  in  the  south- 
ern and  most  fruitful  part  of  Arabia  and  on  the  eastern  coast 
of  Africa.  But  the  impulse  Avhich  has  been  given  of  late  to 
the  study  of  the  Sanscrit  language,  has  led  to  results  not  con- 
templated by  the  orientalists  who  led  the  way  in  that  depart- 
ment. It  has  been  found  that  the  list  of  foreign  products 
mentioned  as  imported  by  Solomon  are  described  partly  in 
terms  foreign  to  the  purest  Hebrew,  and  only  existing  on  the 
western  coast  of  India.  Besides  this,  to  confirm  the  same,  the 
things  themselves  are  not  of  Arabian  or  African,  but  of  In- 
dian origin,  and  can  at  the  present  day  be  found  only  on  the 
western  coast  of  India  and  in  the  islands  of  Sumatra  and 
Ceylon.  The  gold  of  the  Indus  valley  is  a  regular  article  of 
commerce  at  the  present  day ;  while  the  almug  or  sandal- 
wood, ajDes,  peacocks,  spices  and  ivory  are  among  the  regular 
articles  oi  commerce  of  the  East  Indies.  The  situation  of 
Ophu'  cannot  be  limited  to  any  one  spot ;  it  was  a  word,  Avith- 
out  doubt,  of  large  meaning,  and  covered  no  less  a  tract  than 
the  western  coast  of  Hindoostan,  and  some  of  the  great  islands 
contiguous  to  that  peninsula. 

Tarshish  proper  was  no  doubt  Spain  and  the  countries  adja- 
cent ;  and  from  Palestine  a  trade  went  out  thither  as  well  as  to 
Ophir  in  the  remote  East.  Yet  when  the  term  "  Ships  of 
Tarshish"  is  used,  it  is  not  simply  in  all  probability,  ships 
which  necessarily  sailed  to  Tarshish,  for  we  have  an  allusion 
to  "  Ships  of  Tarshish  "  leaving  the  port  of  Ezion  Geber,  and 
we  know  that  that  port  lay  on  the  Red  Sea.  The  name  seems 
to  have  been  used  to  indicate  any  large,  first-class  ships,  just 


SHIPS   OF   TARSHISH. 


313 


as  the  word  East  Indiaman  is  used  in  England  at  the  present 
time.  This  is  the  only  solution  for  the  difficulty  of  deahng  with 
ships  of  Tarshish  which  sailed  from  Ezion  Geber,  and  which 
could  have  nothing,  whatever,  to  have  done  with  the  Med^ 
iterranean.  There  used  to  be,  and  that  not  many  years  ago,  a 
tkeory  prevalent  with  the  learned,  that  there  were  two  places 


HYSSOP. 


bearing  the  name  of  Tarshish,  one  in  the  west,  and  the  other 
in  the  east ;  but  scholars  are  now  swinging  round  to  the  con- 
viction that  the  expression,  ships  of  Tarshish  may  be  called 
Tarshish-ships,  and  that  it  merely  means,  large,  first-class 
vessels,  such  as  used  to  be  sent  out  from  Tyre  to  Spain. 
Of  Sheba,  the  home  of  the  princess  whose  visit  to  Solomon 


314  RELIGIOUS   CORRUPTIONS. 

occupies  so  prominent  a  page  in  the  history  of  that  time,  little 
need  be  said.  It  was  a  rich  and  fertile  province  in  southern 
Arabia,  and  its  queen  must  have  commanded  resources  of  no 
mean  extent.  Indeed  the  extreme  productivity  of  Arabia 
FeHx  was  so  much  in  advance  of  even  the  most  fertile  parts 
of  Palestme,  that  the  monarch  of  such  a  tract  must  have  been 
able  in  point  of  wealth  to  have  not  only  vied  with,  but  to 
have  undoubtedly  surpassed  the  lord  of  so  hilly  and  hard  a 
tract  as  that  Avhich  constituted  a  large  part  of  Solomon's.  The 
visit,  therefore,  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba  was  no  mean  event ; 
and  in  the  astonishment  wliich  she  exhibited  at  the  magnifi- 
cence of  the  Hebrew  king,  we  have  the  strongest  tribute  to  the 
place  which  in  point  of  splendor,  Solomon  held  among  his 
contemporaries.  The  half  had  not  been  told  her,  not  only  his 
wisdom,  reaching  even  to  the  "hyssop  on  the  wall,"  also 
his  many  dark  riddles  and  mysterious  sayings  amazed  her,  but 
the  magnitude  of  his  edifices  and  the  prodigality  of  his  ex- 
penditures, all  caused  her  to  wonder. 

It  can  hardly  lie  within  my  province  to  enter  upon  a  discus- 
sion of  the  minute  details  of  Solomon's  administration.  It 
began  with  great  splendor,  but  its  later  years  were  much 
clouded  in.  His  marriage  into  many  of  the  nations  around 
him,  brought  into  the  capital  many  women  Avhose  religion  was 
utterly  unlike  that  of  the  Hebrews,  and  caused  idolatry  to  be- 
come prevalent.  The  hill  lying  south-east  of  the  city,  now 
known  as  the  Mount  of  Offence,  was  then  covered  with  the 
shrines  which  were  erected  to  these  false  gods.  The  luxury 
and  the  profligacy  which  became  prevalent  at  that  time,  the 
extremely  numerous  marriages  of  the  king,  the  situation  of 
Jerusalem,  away  from  the  centre  of  the  nation,  and  where  it 
could  not  be  in  sympathy  with  the  northern  tribes,  all  tended 
to  break  up  the  nation  ;  and  the  monstrously  developed  taste 
of  the  king  for  magnificence  aided  in  the  same  work,  for  it 
caused  the  country  at  large  to  be  impoverished,  in  order  that 
the  capital  might  be  enriched.  And  when  at  last  foes  sprang 
up  on  the  south  and  on  the  north,  Hadad  among  the  moun- 


CLOSE  OF  Solomon's  eeign.  315 

tains  of  Edom,  and  Rezon  on  the  plains  of  Syria,  the  Hebrew 
monarch  found  his  power  gone.  These  two  able  men  were 
able  to  not  only  throw  off  Solomon's  yoke,  but  also  to  cut  off 
several  of  his  most  important  communications :  that  with  the 
Euphrates  on  the  north-east,  and  that  with  the  Red  Sea  on  the 
south.  All  was  ripe  for  rebellion,  and  when  at  last  it  breaks 
upon  us  in  the  attempt  of  the  able  and  determined  Jereboam, 
the  son  of  Nebat,  it  does  not  take  us  by  surprise.  "We  only 
wonder  that  the  King  was  able  to  suppress  it  and  cause  the 
rebel  to  fly  for  safety  to  Egypt.  This  was  but 

the  preparation  for  the  end,  and  not  long  after  Solomon 
passed  away,  and  his  name  has  been  a  dishonored  one  from 
that  da^y  to  this. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE  TWO  KINGDOMS— REHOBOAM  AND  JEROBOAM. 

Change  at  this  Point  in  the  Character  of  Kings  and  Chronicles — Crisis  at  the 
Close  of  Solomon's  Reign — Rehoboam  Inherits  his  Father's  Love  of  Splen- 
dor— His  Mother — Tiie  Council  at  Shechem — An  Abrupt  Break — Jero- 
boam's Origin — Resemblance  Between  Jeroboam  and  the  First  Napoleon — 
His  Education  in  Fgypt — His  Great  Deeds — An  Egyptian  Invasion — Artifi- 
ciality of  Relioboam's  Character — Extent  of  the  Northern  Compared  with  that 
of  the  Southern  Kingdom — The  Isolation  of  the  Southern  Kingdom  its  best 
Safeguard — Jeroboam's  Want  of  Religion — He  Organizes  a  State  Religion 
for  tlie  "Masses" — Philosophy  which  Underlay  the  Worsliip  of  the  Bullock 
— The  Homage  Paid  to  Nature — Apotheosis  of  Men — No  Binding  Force  in 
his  State  Religion — The  Doom  of  the  House  of  Jeroboam — Tumults  and 
Conspiracies — Zimri,  and  his  Seven  Days'  Reign — Omri — Abijah — Asa. 

ITH  the  close  of  Solomon's  career,  there  is  an  im- 
mediate divergence  in  the  character  of  the  books 
of  Kings  and  Chronicles.  The  former  contains  the 
record  of  the  monarchs  of  both  Judah  and  Israel ;  the  latter 
only  of  the  Kings  of  Judah,  and  alluding  to  the  contempora- 
ries of  the  northern  kingdom  only  when  they  came  into  con- 
flict with  the  southern  power.  There  appears  to  have  once 
been  a  work  exclusively  devoted  to  the  kings  of  Israel ;  but 
that  work  has  perished,  and  we  know  of  it  only  by  the  casual 
references  to  it  in  the  Bible.  The  books  of  Kings  as  we  have 
them  are  far  less  interesting  than  those  of  Chronicles  ;  for  the 
account  of  the  two  rival  kingdoms  is  so  mixed,  and  the  transi- 
tions are  so  sudden  from  the  one  to  the  other,  that  the  read- 
er's mind  is  in  a  complete  blur.  But  it  is  not  so  with  the 
Chronicles  of  the  Kings  of  Judah.  There  the  narrative  flows 
easily  and  naturally  on,  with  few  breaks  or  abrupt  transitions, 
and  with  casual   references  to  the   northern   nation.     The 


THE  CRISIS.  317 

"  Kings  "  reads  as  a  history  of  Fiance  and  England  would  read, 
if  the  two  were  discussed  under  one  head,  as  they  were  in  the 
time  of  the  Plantaganets ;  the  Chronicles  as  the  history  would 
read  if  taken  by  itself,  with  fitting  allusions  to  the  contempo- 
raneous history  of  France. 

The  close  of  Solomon's  reign  was  followed  by  an  immedi- 
ate crisis.  Rehoboam,  his  son,  seems  to  have  inherited  his 
father's  love  of  splendor,  and  more  than  his  father's  imperi- 
ous nature.  His  mother  was  a  foreigner,  a  woman  of  the 
Ammonites,  and  his  first  religious  impressions  must  therefore 
have  come  from  both  the  true  faith  of  his  paternal  ancestors, 
and  the  false  rites  which  he  saw  practised  by  his  mother  and 
her  friends.  His  youth  was  spent,  moreover,  in  the  midst  of 
the  luxury  and  profligacy  of  his  father's  court,  at  a  time  when 
a  young  man  would  almost  necessarily  be  spoiled  by  the  temp- 
tations through  which  he  must  wade.  On  his  accession  it  was 
but  natural,  therefore,  that  the  qualities  thus  gained  should 
show  themselves.  And  they  did  at  once.  The  going  to  She- 
chem  for  the  coronation  may  not  have  resulted  from  any 
pressure  on  the  part  of  the  northern  tribes,  but  once  there,  he 
was  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile  country.  The  peojile  came  up 
to  meet  him,  but  their  first  cry  was  for  a  diminution  of  the 
burdens  to  which  they  had  been  subjected  by  Solomon.  He 
had  grown  up  in  the  company  of  two  different  classes  of  coun- 
selors, old  men  who  had  been  the  advisers  of  his  father,  and 
young  men  who  had  grown  up  with  himself,  and  had  been 
subjected  to  the  same  influences  which  had  formed  his  own 
character.  The  account  of  the  interview  is  so  graphically 
given  in  the  sacred  narrative  that  it  would  be  in  vain  to  at- 
tempt to  improve  upon  it:  "And  King  Rehoboam  consulted 
with  the  old  men  that  stood  before  Solomon  his  father  while 
he  yet  lived,  and  said,  How  do  ye  advise  that  I  may  answer 
this  people  ?  And  they  spake  unto  him,  saying.  If  thou  wilt 
be  a  servant  unto  this  people  this  day,  and  wilt  serve  them, 
and  answer  them,  and  speak  good  words  to  them,  then  they 
will  be  thy  servants  for  ever.     But  he  forsook  the  counsel 


318  THE  COUNCIL   AT   SHECHEM. 

of  the  old  men,  which  they  had  given  him,  and  conaulted  with 
the  young  men  that  were  grown  up  with  him,  and  which 
stood  before  him:  And  he  said  unto  them.  What  coun- 
sel give  ye  that  we  may  answer  this  people,  who  have 
spoken  to  me,  saying,  Make  the  yoke  which  thy  father 
did  put  upon  us  lighter?  And  the  young  men  that  were 
grown  up  with  him  spake  unto  him,  saying.  Thus  shalt  thou 
speak  unto  this  people  that  spake  unto  thee,  saying.  Thy 
father  made  our  yoke  heavy,  but  make  thou  it  lighter  unto 
us ;  thus  shalt  thou  say  unto  them.  My  little  finger  shall  be 
thicker  than  my  father's  loins.  And  now  whereas  my  father 
did  lade  you  with  a  heavy  yoke,  I  will  add  to  your  yoke :  my 
father  hath  chastised  you  with  whips,  but  I  will  chastise  you 
with  scorpions.  So  Jeroboam  and  all  the  people  came  to  Re- 
hoboam  the  third  day,  as  the  King  had  appointed,  saying.  Come 
to  me  again  the  third  day.  And  the  King  answered  the  peo- 
ple roughly,  and  forsook  the  old  men's  counsel  that  they  gave 
him ;  and  spake  to  them  after  the  counsel  of  the  young  men, 
saying,  My  father  made  your  yoke  heavy,  arid  I  will  add  to 
your  yoke :  my  father  also  chastised  you  with  whips,  but  I 
will  chastise  you  with  scorpions.  Wherefore  the  King  heark- 
ened not  unto  the  people :  for  the  cause  was  from  the  Lord, 
that  he  might  perform  his  saying,  which  the  Lord  spake  by 
Ahijah  the  Shilonite  unto  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Nebat.  So 
when  all  Israel  saw  that  the  King  hearkened  not  unto  them, 
the  people  answered  the  King,  saying.  What  portion  have  we 
in  David  ?  neither  have  we  inheritance  in  the  son  of  Jesse : 
to  your  tents,  O  Israel :  now  see  to  thine  own  house,  David. 
So  Israel  departed  unto  their  tents.  But  as  for  the  children 
of  Israel  which  dwelt  in  the  cities  of  Judah,  Rehoboam  reigned 
over  them.  Then  King  Rehoboam  sent  Adoram,  who  was 
over  the  tribute  ;  and  all  Israel  stoned  him  with  stones,  that 
he  died.  Therefore  King  Rehoboam  made  speed  to  get  him 
up  to  his  chariot,  to  flee  to  Jerusalem.  So  Israel  rebelled 
against  the  house  of  David  unto  this  day.  And  it  came  to 
pass  when  all  Israel  heard  that  Jeroboam  was  come  again,  that 


CHARACTERS   OF   REHOBOAM   AND   JEROBOAM.  319 

they  sent  and  called  him  unto  the  congregation,  and  made  him 
king  over  all  Israel :  there  was  none  that  followed  the  house 
of  David,  but  the  tribe  of  Judah  only." 

The  break  was  abrupt  and  decisive.  Jeroboam  who  had 
been  unable  to  unseat  Solomon,  returned  from  his  long  resi- 
dence in  Egypt,  bringing  his  wife,  an  Egyptian  princess. 
By  this  marriage  the  houses  of  the  Edomite  lladad,  Solomon 
and  Jeroboam  were  closely  united,  as  they  had  all  three  mar- 
ried into  the  same  princely  Egyptian  family.  The  same  force 
which  Jeroboam  showed  in  his  youth,  the  same  ambition  which 
made  him,  the  son  of  Nebat  and  a  man  of  the  people,  the  hus- 
band of  an  Egyptian  princess,  and  carried  him  in  every  regard 
to  the  highest  stations  of  the  state,  remained  his  to  the  last. 
People  are  apt  to  confound  Rehoboam  and  Jeroboam,  to  think 
that  they  were  both  of  about  equal  importance,  to  remember 
that  one  was  the  son  of  Solomon  and  the  other  was  not,  and 
not  to  care  much  which  was  ;  but  there  was  a  mighty  differ- 
ence between  the  two.  Rehoboam  was  essentially  a  common 
kind  of  man,  having  a  kind  of  stubborn  and  stupid  self-will, 
a  senseless  love  of  finery  and  parade,  and  but  very  little  of  his 
father's  mental  scope  and  larger  gifts.  Jeroboam  was  a  kind 
of  Napoleon :  atheistic  in  his  religion,  full  of  ambition,  force, 
and  intellect;  a  man  whose  history  can  be  studied  with  as 
much  profit  as  that  of  any  character  in  the  Bible.  Return- 
ing from  Egypt  it  was  seen  at  once  that  he  was  the  man  to 
head  the  revolt,  and  he  it  was,  who  was  by  common  consent 
made  the  king  of  the  northern  tribes.  He  became  at  once 
as  great  a  builder  as  David  had  been.  His  first  step  was  to 
fortify  Shechem  and  make  it  his  capital ;  his  next  to  go 
across  the  Jordan  and  convert  that  ancient  Penuel,  the  place 
of  Jacob's  wrestling,  and  of  so  many  subsequent  striking 
events,  into  a  strong  outpost.  For  many  generations  men 
looked  back  to  him  as  a  great  builder,  and  celebrated  his 
fame.  It  was  not  so  with  his  rival.  Rehoboam  did  nothing 
of  the  sort.  He  fled  from  Shechem  to  Jerusalem  after  the 
revolt,  and  remained  there.     He  pretended  to  adhere  to  the 


DEFILE  IN  IDUM^EA,  IN  THE  ROAD  FROM  PALESTINE  TO  EGYPT 
Exhibiting  the  physical  character  of  Edom,  toe  home  of  Hadad 


Front  Laborde. 


AN   EGYPTIAN   INVASION.  821 

old  faith,  and  had  rites  of  worship  celebrated  in  the  temple ; 
yet  his  capital  was  full  of  idolatries,  and  of  the  sins  which 
were  connected  with  them,  and  became  a  more  shameless  city 
than  even  Solomon  had  left  it. 

In  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign  there  was  an  Egyptian  inva- 
sion. The  name  of  the  leader  is  given  as  Shisliak,  and  on 
the  walls  of  the  ruined  temple  of  Karnak  at  Thebes,  the  trav- 
eler may  still  see  what  is  believed  to  be  the  name  of  this 
monarch,  and  those  of  the  cities  in  Palestine  which  he  took 
and  sacked.  Hard  by  these  names  stand  the  portraits  of  his 
chief  prisoners,  men  with  strikingly  Jewish  countenances,  and 
almost  beyond  question  the  representation  of  distinguished 
Jews.  The  Egyptians  do  not  seem  to  have  been  cruel  in 
their  personal  treatment  of  Rehoboam ;  they  appear  to  have 
converted  him  into  a  tributary  prince,  to  have  compelled  him 
to  pay  them  a  large  sum  of  money,  and  also  to  surrender  the 
costly  vessels  and  ornaments  of  gold  which  were  in  the  tem- 
ple. As  an  indication  of  the  false  and  artificial  character  of 
the  man,  it  is  enough  to  notice  the  sham  parade  of  the  brazen 
shields  which  took  the  place  of  Solomon's  golden  ones.  When- 
ever the  king  went  into  the  temple,  the  guard  took  the  brazen 
shields  and  preceded  the  king,  and  in  this  theatrical  fashion, 
Rehoboam  was  obliged  to  supply  the  want  of  the  real  insignia 
of  dignity  with  cheap  buckram. 

There  is  a  prevalent  impression  that  the  extent  of  the  terri- 
tory of  the  northern  kingdom  was  much  greater  than  that  of 
the  southern  kingdom,  and  that  its  resources  were  much  supe- 
rior. There  is  no  question  that  in  mere  extent  of  territory 
this  was  the  case  ;  and  it  is  equally  certain  that  in  fertility  the 
northern  part  of  Palestine  must  have  been  then  as  now,  far 
in  advance  of  the  southern.  Yet  there  were  some  compen- 
sating advantages  to  Judah.  At  the  time  of  the  disruption, 
Philistia  was  a  part  of  the  southern  kingdom.  It  had  been 
conquered  at  last ;  and  although  Da^dd  Jiad  committed  the 
great  mistake  of  not  reconstructing  it,  peopling  it  with  his 
own  nation,  and  making  it  homogeneous  with  the  hill-country 


822  THE   SOUTHERN    AND    NORTHERN   KINGDOMS. 

in  respect  to  its  population  and  civilization,  still  it  might  be 
reckoned  as  a  part  of  the  southern  kingdom.  But  better  still, 
Judah  still  controlled  the  land  of  Edom  and  the  ports  on  the 
Red  Sea.  Here  was  the  inlet  of  the  gold  and  silver  which 
made  the  wealth  of  Solomon  and  Rehoboam.  It  was  this 
which  made  the  southern  kingdom  the  rival  of  the  northern 
in  outward  splendor,  and  the  time  had  not  come  then  when 
people  could  look  much  further  than  to  outward  splendor. 

And  so  too,  the  isolation  of  the  southern  kingdom  was  a 
great  safeguard,  and  a  compensation  of  much  importance, 
when  set  over  against  the  unguarded  district  of  the  north. 
The  kingdom  of  Israel  was  open  to  every  invader,  who  might 
choose  to  enter  it  on  the  north  or  north-east ;  and  in  the  rapid 
development  at  that  time  of  the  kingdom  of  Syria,  with  Da- 
mascus as  its  capital,  the  Ten  Tribes  were  in  great  peril.  In- 
deed as  early  as  the  reign  of  Baasha,  the  second  from  Jero- 
boam, an  alliance  was  entered  into  by  the  King  of  Judah,  with 
the  ruler  of  Syria,  and  an  invasion  was  made  by  the  latter 
into  the  northern  districts  of  Israel,  the  tract  around  Hermon 
and  the  sources  of  the  Jordan.  But  Judah  was  quite  safe. 
Shut  in  by  a  wilderness  on  the  south  and  east,  and  with  its  rival 
on  the  north,  it  could  suffer  but  little  from  pagan  nations.  Re- 
hoboam did  yield  it  is  true,  to  the  power  of  Shishak,  the  Egyp- 
tian King,  but  Asa,  his  grandson,  who  was  threatened  by  Zerah, 
with  a  great  host  of  African  soldiers,  was  able  to  rush  down 
from  the  mountains  and  sweep  the  whole  invading  army  clean 
away.  On  the  whole,  taken  in  respect  to  its  isolation,  its 
rocky  fastnesses,  its  outlet  to  the  treasures  of  Ophir  and  the 
East,  its  dommion  over  the  territory  of  Edom  and  Philistia, 
there  was  not  much  to  choose  between  Judah  and  Israel.  In 
respect  to  the  danger  to  be  apprehended  from  idolatry,  the 
northern  kingdom  was  much  the  most  in  peril.  Living  on 
such  easy  terms  with  the  Phoenicians,  and  under  Syrian  in- 
fluence as  well,  it  easily  lapsed  into  heathen  customs,  and  for- 
sook its  God. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  in  the  character  of  Jeroboam 


Jeroboam's  idolatrous  worship.  323 

was  his  want  of  religion.  He  was  what  we  should  call  an 
atheist,  for  brought  up  amid  the  decaying  religion  of  his  an- 
cestors, and  then  transplanted  to  tlie  soil  of  Egypt,  he  was 
robbed  of  all  faith,  and  like  Napoleon,  got  so  far  at  last,  as 
merely  to  believe  in  religion  as  a  kind  of  conservative  influ- 
ence, an  efficient  auxiliary  of  the  police.  He  reacted  so  far 
from  the  primitive  faith  of  his  land,  as  to  expel  all  the  Levites, 
and  to  establish  a  priesthood  based  on  his  own  will,  accepting 
as  priests  those  who  were  rich  enough  to  make  a  liberal  con- 
tribution to  his  stores.  He  abolished  the  old  festival  days  of 
the  church,  retaining  only  one,  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  and 
that  one,  not  out  of  religious  feeling,  but  knowing  that  it  was 
important  to  the  continuance  of  his  power,  that  at  stated 
times  the  people  should  come  together  and  pay  their  homage 
to  their  king.  But  though  retaining  the  ancient  Feast  of  the 
Tabernacles,  he  changed  the  day  on  which  it  was  celebrated, 
to  "  the  month  which  he  had  desired  in  his  own  heart." 
Though  thoroughly  irreligious  himself,  yet  seeing  that  the 
public  neglect  of  religion  by  himself  was  very  prejudicial  to 
his  interests,  and  that  all  the  people  who  formed  his  best  re- 
liance were  leaving  him  and  going  to  the  southern  kingdom, 
where  there  was  at  least  a  show  of  deference  for  Jehovah,  he 
established  a  state  ceremonial,  and  setting  up  two  calves  in 
Bethel  and  Dan,  which  were  both  places  of  ancient  sanctity, 
he  bade  the  people  come  and  worship  them.  This  act  of  Jero- 
boam has  been  commonly  misunderstoo'3 1  and  some  have  gone 
so  far  as  to  say  that  having  married  an  Egyptian  princess  and 
being  himself  colored  with  the  religious  notions  of  the  country 
where  he  had  sojourned  for  a  long  time,  he  brought  back  with 
him  the  Mnevis  worship  of  that  land.  This  explanation  of 
his  conduct  is  not  tenable.  The  worship  of  the  calf  or  bul- 
lock would  not  have  been  acceptable  to  the  people  if  they 
had  seen  in  it  anything  Egyptian.  From  the  very  first  they 
loathed  the  religious  rites  of  the  nation  under  which  their 
ancestors  had  so  long  been  in  bondage.  But  the  worship  of 
the  bullock  was  common  among  eastern  nations  and  had  a  deep 


324  ORIGIN   OF   IDOLATRY. 

significance.  In  it  we  can  even  now  see  the  spiritual  side  of 
idolatry  ;  for  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  worship  of  idols 
rests  on  nothing  spiritual.  In  all  cases  those  who  have  estab- 
lished idol  worship  have  justified  it  by  some  such  plea  as  the 
Romanist  justifies  the  adoration  of  images,  viz :  that  the 
worshiper  regards  the  idol  as  the  impersonation  of  certain 
qualities  of  nature  which  are  admirable  and  worthy  of  human 
reverence.  Now  the  bullock,  among  an  agricultural  commun- 
ity, represents  the  patience  and  the  strength  of  nature  ;  strong 
and  patient  is  that  creature ;  and  these  two  qualities  seen  in 
the  beast  which  serves  man  best,  became  in  the  dawning  ages 
of  the  world,  the  subjects  of  his  highest  worship.  In  a  time 
like  this  we  pay  an  homage  to  a  different  class  of  qualities  ;  Ave 
admhe  cunning,  grasp,  en'ergy ;  and  the  feeling  with  which  we 
regard  the  possessors  of  such  qualities,  and  strive  to  imitate 
them,  is  not  far  removed  from  that  with  which  men  in  a  sim- 
pler time,  prodacdd  in  outward  form  that  to  which  they  gave 
the  adoration  of  their  soul.  In  the  act  of  Jeroboam  we  see 
the  origin  of  idolatry  ;  we  see  it  in  its  nascent  state,  detect  its 
roots,  and  see  how  they  grow  uj)  in  the  soul.  The  feeling 
with  which  most  Americans  contemplate  the  character  of 
Washington,  is  not  far  removed  from  the  admiration  which 
made  the  Romans  worship  Julius  Csesar ;  and  many  a  Chris- 
tian man  is  living  in  our  time  who  had  he  lived  a  thousand 
years  ago  and  been  as  good  as  he  is  now  and  no  better,  would 
have  been  made  a  saint,  and  his  name  would  have  been  writ- 
ten with  St.  before  it,  and  a  day  would  have  been  set  apart 
to  commemorate  his  birth.  The  characteristics  which  we  find 
in  ourselves  are  just  such,  as  pushed  out  in  another  and  sim- 
pler age,  make  open  and  confirmed  idolatry. 

There  is  this  instructive  lesson  to  be  learned  from  Jero- 
boam, that  when  any  pinch  came,  his  new  state  religion  did 
not  hold  him,  he  fell  right  back  upon  the  faith  of  his  fathers. 
When  he  had  built  an  altar  for  Nature-worship,  and  a  true 
prophet  had  come  up  from  Judah  and  made  that  memorable 
appeal,  not  to  the  King  who  stood  by,  but  to  the  altar  itself, 


20 


326  DOWNFALL   OF   JEROBOAM. 

(I.  Kings  xiii.  2,)  the  story  reveals  enough  to  show  that  the 
rebuke  which  the  King  received,  compelled  him  to  acknowl- 
edge the  God  of  his  fathers.  And  still  more  conspicuously 
when  his  favorite  child  was  sick,  he  sought  relief  at  the  hand 
of  God,  sending  his  wife  in  disguise  to  seek  help  of  a  true 
prophet.  These  things  show  us  that  men  never  escape,  in 
times  of  extremity,  the  lessons  which  they  once  learned  at  their 
mother's  knee,  and  that  in  their  time  of  trouble  they  always 
fall  back  upon  the  God  of  their  fathers. 

The  doom  predicted  upon  the  house  of  Jeroboam  was  rig- 
idly fulfilled ;  his  whole  family  perished,  and  his  son  had  a 
brief  and  inglorious  reign.  And  indeed  the  reader  cannot 
fail  to  note  the  brief  and  tempest-tossed  dynasties  of  the  north- 
ern kingdom,  compared  with  the  more  stable  dynasty  of  the 
south.  There  son  followed  father  for  many  generations,  and 
the  race  of  David  was  long  perpetuated,  as  if  in  fulfillment 
of  the  ancient  promise.  But  it  was  not  so  in  the  northern 
kingdom.  The  history  of  those  first  reigns  is  like  that  of 
Rome  under  the  most  degraded  emperors.  Jeroboam  reigned 
twenty-two  years,  and  was  followed  by  Nadab  his  son,  who 
held  the  throne  but  two  3^ears,  when  he  was  supplanted  by  his 
own  captain,  the  powerful  and  warlike  Baasha.  He  kept  up 
a  long  and  wasting  war  with  Asa,  the  King  of  Judah,  and  at 
length  was  followed  by  his  son  the  unimportant  Elah,  who 
reigned  but  two  years.  He  was  supplanted  by  his  own  Gen- 
eral, Zimri,  who  reigned  but  seven  days,  and  was  assassinated 
in  a  drunken  debauch,  and  was  followed  by  a  man  whom  the 
array  chose,  Omri.  The  comparison  between  this  and  the 
Flavian  dynasty  at  Rome  has  been  pointed  out  and  is  most  in- 
structive. In  the  southern  kingdom,  affairs  were  much  more 
stable.  Rehoboam  was  followed  by  his  son,  the  powerful  and 
warlike  Abijah,  whose  name  would  have  been  much  more 
prominent  had  he  lived  more  than  three  years  after  his  acces- 
sion. Still  he  was  soldier  enough  to  encounter  and  overthrow 
the  mighty  Jeroboam  himself.  Abijah  was  followed  by  his 
son  Asa,  a  shrewd  and  politic  prince,  who  reigned  forty-one 


Asa's  reign.  327 

years.  Though  not  an  epoch  of  splendor,  it  was  one  of  pros- 
perity. He  was,  as  just  remarked,  a  shrewd  and  politic  prince, 
and  although  the  son  of  a  heathen  woman,  he  saw  the  drift 
of  things  in  the  northern  kingdom  clearly  enough  to  discover 
that  should  he  not  make  way  with  the  idolatrous  rites  of  his 
own  capital,  Judah  and  Jerusalem  would  be  doomed  with  the 
same  curse  which  was  falling  on  Israel.  I  think  that  although 
he  has  been  thought  to  be  an  eminently  "  pious  "  monarch, 
sagacity  had  as  much  to  do  with  the  reformation  he  effected, 
as  did  piety.  His  giving  away  of  the  sacred  vessels  of  the 
temple  to  the  Kin^  of  Syria  in  order  to  purchase  an  alliance 
with  him  against  Baasha,  the  King  of  Israel,  was  not  done  as 
David  would  have  done.  And  when  Hanani  the  prophet  re- 
buked him  for  this,  and  reminded  him  that  at  the  time  of  the 
impending  Ethiopian  invasion,  simple  reliance  on  God  had 
given  him  the  victory,  he  did  not  do  as  David  did  when  Nathan 
said,  "  Thou  art  the  man,"  but  cast  the  aged  Hanani  into 
prison.  This  act  stands  almost  alone  in  the  whole  course  of 
Hebrew  history.  The  sacred  character  of  the  prophets  was 
always  their  best  protection  against  even  the  king  ;  and  almost 
never,  except  in  the  case  of  Asa,  was  this  sacred  prerogative 
forgotten. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

AHAB  AND  ELUAH— JEHOSHAPHAT. 

Ahab  Surpasses  even  Jeroboam  in  Wickedness — His  Marriage  with  Jezebel— 
The  Worship  of  Foreign  Images  comes  in — The  Adoration  of  Baal  an  Apo- 
theosis of  Power — Parallel  Between  the  Ideas  of  Ancient  Idolaters  and  those 
Current  Among  Ourselves — The  Brilliant  and  Festive  Character  of  much 
of  the  "  Divine  Worship  "  of  Our  Day — A  Falling  Away  from  the  Grave  and 
Earnest  Spirit  of  Moses  and  His  Successors — The  Character  of  Jezebel — The 
Rites  She  Introduced — Elijah  Starts,  as  it  were  from  the  Ground — His  Train- 
ing— His  Rough,  Wild,  Ungracious  Ways — Contrast  Between  Eastern  and 
Western  Palestine — Thunder  in  a  Clear  Sky — Ahab's  First  Rebuke — Sud- 
denness of  Elijah's  Moves — Scenes  where  He  Appears — He  is  Always  at 
Hand  when  Needed — Hopes  that  he  would  Again  Visit  this  Earth — Mendels- 
Bohn's  Elijah — War  Between  Ahab  and  the  King  of  Syria — The  Reign  of 
Ahab  Almost  Unconnected  with  that  of  His  Contemporary,  Jehoshaphat — 
The  Great  Deeds  of  the  Latter  King — He  Revives  the  Glories  of  Solomon. 

n 

I  HE  reign  of  Ahab  over  the  northern  Idngdom  is  one 

of  the  most  instructive  in  the  entire  annals  of  He- 
brew history.  Succeeding  the  inferior  line  of  mon- 
archs  who  followed  Jeroboam  and  walked  in  his  footsteps, 
Ahab  went  even  beyond  them  all  in  wickedness.  His  mar- 
riage with  Jezebel^  the  daughter  of  a  Phoenician  prince,  Eth- 
baal,  inaugurated,  or  rather,  gave  official  sanction  to  the  idol- 
atrous habits  of  Ahab  and  his  whole  people.  With  Jeroboam, 
the  worship  of  the  calves  had  been  more  of  a  state  religion, 
and  although  it  was  idolatry  in  point  of  fact,  yet  it  was  in- 
tended as  a  means  of  deceiving  the  people,  and  of  causing 
them  to  believe  that  in  this  disguised  form,  they  were  still 
rendering  their  worship  to  Jehovah.  But  during  the  reign 
of  Ahab  the  religion  of  the  state  took  an  entirely  different 
turn ;  open  and  avowed  worship  of  foreign  images  was  ush- 


BAAL-WORSHIP  THE   DEIFICATION   OF  POWER. 


329 


ered  in  and  had  official  sanction,  and  Baal  took  the  place  of 
Jehovah.  We  often  think  that  that  worship  of  Baal  was 
something  to  which  nothing  in  our  modern  life  and  thought 
corresponds ;  but  this  is  not  so :  the  worship  of  Baal  was 
simply  the  apotheosis  of  power.  If  we  in  this  age  who  wor- 
ship power  in  any  form,  who  really  in  our  spirits  do  homage 
to  intellect,  or  financial  success,  or  commanding  will, — if  we 
should  merely  put  our  idea  into  form,  and  represent  power 
either  in  marble,  or  on  canvass,  or  in  ivory,  or  wood,  or  bronze, 
we  should  be  doing  just  what  the  ancient  Phoenicians  did. 


HEAD  AND  WHOLE  FIGURE  OF  PHCENICIAN  BAAL. 

From  Coins  in  the  British  Museum. 

Jehovah,  the  invisible  God,  represented  purity,  truth,  good- 
ness, those  supreme  and  ineffable  qualities  which  if  men  be- 
lieve in  and  worship,  steal  over  the  human  soul  with  a  great 
and  rich  blessing  ;  but  Baal  represented  that  quality  the  deifi- 
cation of  which  is  the  deification  of  self,  and  the  exaltation 
of  which  is  a  kind  of  idolatry  which  utterly  unfits  the  human 
soul  for  rising  to  any  higher  pitch  of  excellence  than  lies 
within  itself  and  the  horizon  of  its  own  thought.  Those 
ancient  people  were  wonderfully  like  ourselves ;  human  nature 
has  not  changed ;  and  it  is  a  very  instructive  lesson  that  we 


830  BAAL-WORSHIP   LIKE   MODERN   WORSHIP. 

learn  when  we  go  behind  the  scenes,  and  see  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment the  working  of  the  same  instincts  which  are  powerful 
in  ourselves.  And  that  worship  of  Baal  which  seems  to  us 
something  utterly  unlike  Avhat  we  call  "  religious  worship," 
was  probably  not  much  different  in  nature  from  that  light, 
festal,  tasteful  and  in  some  cases  frivolous  pretext  for  worship 
whiclj  is  only  too  prevalent  in  our  large  cities  and  towns  at 
the  present  day.  We  who  have  seen  the  serious,  earnest, 
grave  and  almost  severe  manner  in  which  our  fathers  paid 
God  their  homage,  changed  for  the  sesthetic  ceremonials 
which  now  find  their  favored  home  in  our  churches,  can 
have  a  good  idea  of  the  manner  in  which  the  earnest  Je- 
hovah worship  was  merged  into  the  gay  and  intoxicating  rites 
which  were  celebrated  in  honor  of  Baal,  the  Power-god. 
The  music  which  is  often  sung  in  the  churches  of  France, 
and  which  has  become  too  familiar  in  our  own  Protestant 
places  of  worship,  is  probably  of  the  same  character  with  that 
which  was  sung  in  the  gatherings  of  the  Hebrews,  after  Ahab 
and  Jezebel  had  introduced  the  Tyrian  ritual. 

With  this  decadence  in  the  religious  idea,  with  this  falling 
away  from  the  grave  and  earnest  spirit  of  Moses  and  his  suc- 
cessors, came  a  like  decadence  in  morality.  All  through  the 
line  of  the  monarchs  of  Israel  we  discover  that  a  want  of  re- 
ligion is  the  true  concomitant  of  a  want  of  good  morals.  The 
general  profligacy  of  Ahab,  had  its  reflex  in  his  want  of  re- 
ligious faith.  His  natural  profligacy  was  of  course  mightily 
strengthened  by  his  union  with  the  infamous  Jezebel,  whose 
name  will  go  down,  like  that  of  Lady  Macbeth,  to  an  immor- 
tality of  disgrace.  She  was  far  the  superior  of  her  husband 
in  grasp,  force,  courage,  and  probably  in  intellectual  resources  ; 
while  in  sin  she  was  even  more  strikingly  his  master.  There 
is  something  satanic  in  Jezebel,  and  if  Deborah,  the  ancient 
prophetess  has  a  kind  of  grandeur  of  her  own,  Jezebel  is  not 
inferior  in  the  same.  By  her  power  and  personal  prestige  slie 
had  made  the  Baal  worship  universal  in  Israel ;  the  devotees 
of  the  ancient  faith  had  all  been  subjected  to  one  grand  per- 


ROUGHNESS  OF  ELUAH.  331 

secution  not  fully  described,  but  only  hinted  at  in  the  sacred 
narrative ;  a  magnificent  temple  had  been  erected  at  Samaria 
in  honor  of  Baal ;  very  near  Jezreel  there  was  a  grove 
dedicated  to  her  national  divinities  ^  and  what  with  the  splen- 
dor of  the  vestments  worn  by  the  Phoenician  priests,  and  the 
intoxicating  natui-e  of  the  sensuous,  and  it  would  seem  las- 
civious rites  which  she  introduced,  the  nation  was  fairly  be- 
witched, and  yielded  without  much  struggling  to  the  persecu- 
tion and  banishment  of  those  who  remained  true  to  Jehovah. 
In  such  a  time  as  this  arose  Elijah,  starting  out  of  the  very 
ground,  as  it  were,  like  an  apparition.  Who  he  was  we  know 
not,  who  his  father  and  mother  were  we  know  not ;  all  we 
know  about  him  is  that  he  was  a  man  of  Gilead ;  that  his 
training  had  been  in  the  wild  ravines  east  of  the  Jordan,  and 
that  in  his  dress  and  manner  he  had  all  the  savage  character- 
istics of  a  Gadite.  He  would  appear  to  us,  were  we  to  see 
him,  a  perfect  Bedouin.  We  can  not  imagine  Abraham  save 
as  a  kind  and  winning  and  perfectly  polite  Arab  Sheikh;  we 
think  of  his  as  a  mild  eye,  and  imagine  that  his  bearing  was 
as  courtlj^  as  was  that  of  the  old  Sheikh  Saleh  who  escorted 
Robinson  through  the  Sinaitic  desert.  But  Elijah  the  Tish- 
bite — whatever  that  expression  may  mean,  for  no  one  knows 
— was  an  angular  man  ;  his  whole  action  hard  and  ungracious, 
his  whole  language  rude  and  uncompromising,  his  whole  na- 
ture fiery  and  volcanic.  In  outward  appearance  he  was  rough 
even  to  an  extreme.  Even  in  his  day  the  contrast  between 
the  manners  of  Palestine  east  of  the  Jordan,  and  Western 
Palestine  was  greater  than  now  exists  between  the  manners 
of  Massachusetts  and  Arkansas ;  and  Elijah  was  an  extreme 
example  even  of  Eastern  Palestine.  He  was  well  known  by 
his  dress  and  appearance  ;  probably  tall,  he  wore  his  hair  no- 
toriously long,  he  had  for  his  chief  garment  a  rough  sheep- 
skin mantle,  with  which  he  sometimes  enveloped  his  face,  and 
which  he  sometimes  wore  over  his  body.  This  with  the  leath- 
ern girdle  common  among  all  Bedouins,  completed  his  attire ; 
and  yet  it  might  be  matched  by  that  of  many  a  wild  Arab  at 


332  Mendelssohn's  elijah. 

the  present  day.  His  appearance  west  of  the  Jordan  must 
have  always  been  disagreeable  ;  he  was  so  harsh,  so  uncouth, 
so  violent,  so  uncompromising ;  but  when  he  dared  to  rise  up 
like  a  ghost  in  the  very  court  of  the  voluptuous  and  effemi- 
nate King,  and  hurl  at  him  his  hard  and  stern  words,  the 
spectacle  must  have  been  one  to  arouse  the  whole  nation. 

Not  more  unexpectedly  does  the  thunder  break  in  upon  us 
on  a  summer's  day,  than  does  Elijah  appear  in  the  story  of 
Ahab's  reign.  And  Mendelssohn  has  well  caught  the  spirit 
of  this,  in  the  opening  of  that  most  finished  and  harmonious  of 
modern  oratorios,  his  Elijah,  in  causing  the  first  strain  to  be, 
not  as  in  all  other  pieces  of  the  same  character,  the  orchestral 
overture,  but  to  be  the  clear,  plangent  tenor  of  Elijah  him- 
self, breaking  the  silence  Avith  the  well-known  words,  "  As 
the  Lord  God  of  Israel  liveth,  before  whom  I  stand,  there 
shall  not  be  dew  nor  rain  these  years  but  according  to  thy 
word."  It  was  the  first  great  rebuke  which  Ahab  had  expe- 
rienced. It  was  the  ushering  in  of  that  succession  of  calamities 
which  were  to  end  in  the  tragic  fate  of  both  himself  and  wife. 
And  after  this  the  sacred  narrative  runs  on  in  a  most  attract- 
ive way,  presenting  snatches  of  private  history,  giving  us 
glimpses  into  the  life  and  customs  of  that  day,  but  always 
keeping  us  in  busy  remembrance  of  God's  fidelity  to  his  ser- 
vant, and  his  abomination  of  wickedness. 

Uncertain  like  the  birthplace  of  Elijah  are  all  his  appear- 
'  ances  upon  the  field.  He  jumps  about  like  a  flea  ;  we  get  a 
glunpse  of  him  in  one  place  and  presently  he  is  gone,  only  to 
appear  at  a  most  unexpected  moment  in  quite  a  different  quar- 
ter. Now  he  is  by  the  brook  Chrilb  "  before  "  i.  e.  east  of 
the  Jordan,  not  down  by  Jericho  as  Robinson  supposes,  but 
amid  the  fastnesses  of  Gilead ;  anon  he  emerges  into  view  at 
Zarephoth  on  the  western  slope  of  the  Lebanon,  and  near 
Tyre ;  now  he  is  at  Beersheba,  on  the  very  southern  confines 
of  Judah  ;  now  he  is  near  Damascus ;  and  again  he  is  at  Car- 
mel  or  on  the  plain  of  Jezreel.  But  wherever  he  comes  from, 
he  always  makes  his  appearance  at  just  the  hour  when  God 


THE   GREATEST   OF   THE   PROPHETS.  333 

has  a  word  for  him  to  say  or  a  deed  to  do.  Whenever  there 
is  a  great  truth  to  be  revealed,  such  as  the  providence  of  God, 
the  silent  working  of  God,  God's  rebuke  of  sin,  God's  faith- 
fulness to  his  son,  there  is  Elijah  ready  to  hear  and  by  word 
or  deed  to  interpret  the  divine  voice  to  men.  Of  the  impres- 
sion which  he  made  upon  his  age  we  get  no  adequate  idea. 
When  standing  on  the  eastern  brow  of  Carmel  and  confront- 
ing the  eight  hundred  and  fifty  priests  of  Baal  and  Ashtaroth, 
with  their  self-confidence,  gay  costumes,  and  popular  favor, 
he  reasserted  the  sovereignty  of  Jehovah,  he  made  an  impres- 
sion on  the  age  which  was  never  lost.  The  purest,  honestest, 
simplest  character  in  the  Old  Testament,  he  stood  out  so 
prominently  as  the  central  figure  of  his  time,  that  the  impres- 
sion he  made  never  passed  away,  and  inspired  his  nation  with 
the  hope  that  he  would  return  some  day  to  reinspire  the  popu- 
lar heart.  Malachi,  the  last  of  the  prophets,  closes  the  Old 
Testament  with  the  prediction  that  that  grand  old  prophet 
shall  come  again  to  re-establish  Israel ;  and  when  after  a  long 
tract  of  silence,  the  New  Testament  history  emerges,  we  still 
have  more  thinking  of  Elijah  and  his  return ;  and  even  in  the 
faint  and  imperfectly  understood  mutterings  of  the  Saviour 
on  the  cross,  Eli,  Eli,  lama  sabachthani ;  the  people  who  stood 
around  thought  that  he  was  calling  Elijah  to  come  to  his  relief. 
There  is  no  need  that  I  should  rehearse  here  the  incidents 
of  Elijah's  life  ;  they  have  been  told  in  language  of  inimitable 
beauty  and  simphcity  in  the  Bible  ;  and  have  in  our  time  been 
made  fresh  by  the  frequent  rendering  of  that  grand  work  of 
Christian  art,  Mendelssohn's  'Elijah."  The  stories  in  which 
his  name  occurs  are  among  the  earliest  to  kindle  the  interest 
of  children  ;  and  as  we  grow  up,  so  their  scope  enlarges  upon 
the  mind,  and  we  discover  new  beauties  in  them  as  long  as  we 
live.  The  widow's  barrel  and  cruise,  the  great  appeal  on 
Carmel  to  Jehovah  and  Baal,  the  wonderful  revelation  in  the 
still  small  voice  on  Horeb,  the  breaking  in  upon  Ahab  after 
the  killing  of  Naboth,  as  appalling  as  the  appearing  of  the 
ghost  of  Banquo,  all  these  underlie  the  grandest  truths  of  the 


*;_,-  Jv    — -: -- 


£?'^ 


MOUNT  CARMEL  FROM  THE  NORTH,  WITH  THE  VILLAGE  OF  HAIFA. 
On  this  mount  Elijah  proposed  a  test  to  the  priests  of  Baal  to  ascertain  who  was  the  true  God ;  and 
Elijah  was  answered  by  God,  to  the  confusion  ol  those  priests.     He  afterwards  slew  thirty  of  them 
at  the  Brook  Kishon. 


TRAGIC   SL4NNER   OF  AHAb's   DEATH.  335 

Bible,  and  yet  are  like  the  language  of  childhood  in  the 
masterful  simplicity  of  their  narration.  There  is  no  part  of 
the  Bible  where  the  young  and  the  old  drink  so  manifestly 
out  of  the  same  spring,  as  in  the  story  of  Elijah. 

During  the  life-time  of  this  prophet,  but  apparently  with- 
out much  connection,  occurred  the  war  between  Ahab  and 
Benhadad,  the  powerful  King  of  Syria,  a  country  no  longer 
of  second  rate  importance,  but  rapidly  emerging  into  the  front 
rank.  In  this  w^ar,  however,  Ahab  was  victorious,  and  wrung 
from  his  invader  some  valuable  privileges.  That  war  is  of  but 
little  interest  to  us  however ;  it  is  entirely  thrown  into  the 
shade  by  the  tragic  invasion  of  Eastern  Palestine  three  years 
later,  when  Jehoshaphat,  the  King  of  Judah,  joined  his  forces 
with  those  of  Ahab  to  go  over  and  rescue  the  city  of  Remoth, 
in  Gilead,  from  the  hand  of  the  Syrian  King.  The  prophecy 
had  already  been  sounded  in  Ahab's  ears  that  the  dogs  that 
had  licked  the  blood  of  Naboth,  should  lick  his  bloqjd ;  and 
the  King  was  most  anxious  to  avert  the  doom.  It  was  all  in 
vain,  however.  Not  all  his  precautions  saved  his  life  ;  though 
he  went  into  battle  with  the  armor  of  a  common  soldier,  he 
was  killed  by  a  stray  arrow,  and  borne  from  the  field  mortally 
wounded.  The  armor  which  he  wore,  and  the  chariot  in  which 
he  rode,  both  of  them  drenched  with  his  blood,  were  after- 
wards washed  in  the  spring  of  Samaria,  and  the  dogs  crowded 
around  as  they  do  in  Eastern  cities,  and  lapped  the  discolored 
waters.     And  thus  the  prophecy  was  fulfilled. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  reign  of  Ahab  was  almost  en- 
tirely unconnected  with  that  of  his  contemporary  Jehosha- 
phat. The  latter  a  pious,  wise  and  calm  prince,  led  a  long  and 
peaceful  life,  continuing  the  same  work  which  Asa,  his  father, 
had  begun,  and  not  troubling  himself  with  the  affairs  of  Ahab, 
excepting  at  the  time  of  the  alliance  alluded  to  above,  when  he 
felt  the  necessity  of  defending  himself  from  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  powerful  and  ambitious  King  of  Syria.  It  was, 
however,  more  conspicuously  during  the  reign  of  Ahab's  son 
Jehoram,  that  the  alliance  between  Judah  and  Israel  ripened 


VALLEY  OF  JEHOSHAPHAT. 
Showing  the  Traditional  Tombs  of  Jehoshaphat  and  Zechariah,  and  Jewish  bury 
ing-ground. 
"  From  a  Photograph  by  Fairbaim. 


JEHOSHAPHAT.  337 

into  auspicious  results.  The  Kings  of  Ammon  and  Moab, 
emboldened  by  the  Syrian  successes  east  of  the  Jordan,  and 
more  especially  by  the  death  of  Ahab,  began  to  revolt  and  to 
refuse  to  pay  their  annual  tribute  of  cattle.  This  produced  a 
war  against  them  by  the  allied  Kings  of  Judah  and  Israel,  Je- 
hoshaphat  and  Jehoram,  which  war  was  brought  to  a  favorable 
conclusion  in  connection  with  the  labors  of  Elisha.  But  all 
that  Jehoshaphat  did  during  his  life-time  is  marked  by  wis- 
dom, enterprise  and  a  good  share  of  piety.  He  seems  to  have 
been  a  better  and  an  abler  prince  than  even  Asa  his  father. 
The  attempt  to  revive  the  trade  with  Ophir  shows  that  he  had 
a  part  of  the  spirit  which  characterized  Solomon  ;  while  there 
is  no  indication  that  he  was  heir  to  the  more  ignoble  and 
purely  sensuous  traits  which  marked  the  nature  of  Solomon. 
Jehoshaphat's  attempt  to  build  a  fleet  at  the  head  of  the  east- 
ern arm  of  the  Red  Sea,  was,  however,  brought  to  naught  by 
a  great  storm  which  destroyed  the  fleet  which  he  had  built ; 
and  it  does  not  appear  the  project  was  revived.  Yet  the  men- 
tion of  the  building  of  these  ships  at  Eziongeber,  and  the  hold 
which  Jehoshaphat  held  on  Petra  the  land  of  Edom,  and 
which  was  at  once  lost  by  his  successor,  shows  us  the  power 
and  scope  of  the  man's  ideas,  and  makes  us  regret  that  his 
history  has  not  come  down  to  us  in  more  extended  form  than 
it  has. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

ELISJLA.  AND  HIS  TIMES. 

Contrast  Between  Elisha  and  Elijah— Mont  Blanc  and  Righi — Elislia  is  Com- 
monplace Compared  with  his  Predecessor — Yet  a  Sweet  and  Benignant 
Character — Hazael  the  King  of  Syria— The  Call  of  Elisha— Strange  Affection 
of  Elijah  for  Elisha — The  Going  Up  from  Gilgal  to  Bethel— Elisha's  Short 
Hair  and  the  Ridicule  it  Occasioned — "  Go  Up  Thou  Bald  Head  "  P:xplained — 
A  Peaceful  Career — Elisha's  Great  Kindnesses — The  Wonders  He  Wrought 
— Elisha  is  the  Master  Even  of  Kings. 

|EXT  to  Elijah  in  interest,  during  the  times  which 
we  are  now  contemplating,  is  Elisha.  And  yet  he 
was  a  far  different  man  ;  far  more  of  a  Christian,  so 
to  speak ;  far  more  in  sympathy  with  what  we  call  a  modern 
spirit.  Elijah  is  a  grand  and  awful  character ;  like  Moses,  he 
rises  among  the  men  of  the  Old  Testament  as  Mont  Blanc  or 
the  Jungfrau  rises  among  the  mountains  of  Switzerland, 
majestic  and  overpowering,  while  Elisha  is  like  the  sunny  and 
tree  covered  Righi,  whose  top  is  bathed  in  sunlight,  and  whose 
sides  are  dotted  with  chalets  to  the  very  crown.  Elisha  is  a 
much  more  commonplace  character  than  Elijah ;  he  is  not  a 
man  who  can  stir  our  enthusiasm  very  much ;  there  is  not 
much  about  him  that  is  epic,  chivalrous  and  heroic ;  his  life 
is  eventful,  indeed,  but  not  in  a  soldierly  way ;  and  it  is  a 
sensible  drop  from  Elijah  to  him,  judged  by  any  standard  but 
that  of  Christianity.  And  yet  a  sweet,  benignant  and  enjoy- 
able character,  and  if  we  take  him  and  hold  him  in  a  Christian 
light,  we  shall  discover  much  in  him  to  admire  and  imitate. 

When  Elijah  was  at  Horeb,  it  was  told  him  that  he  should 
anoint  Hazael  to  be  King  of  Syria  in  place  of  Benhadad,  the 
legitimate  ruler,  and  Jehu  to  be  King  of  Israel,  in  place  of 


CONTRAST  BETWEEN   ELIJAH   AND   ELISHA.  339 

Jehorara,  the  legitimate  ruler ;  and  that  he  should  choose 
Elisha  to  be  prophet  in  his  stead  when  he  should  be  called 
away.  Only  one  of  these  charges  was  fulfilled  by  Elijah  in 
person ;  the  other  two  were  left  by  him  to  his  successor.  It 
is  probable  that  the  cruel,  crafty,  and  ambitious  spirit  of 
Hazael,  the  Syrian  General,  was  known  to  him  even  then ; 
and  that  he  was  not  unacquainted  with  the  soldierly  daring, 
the  impetuosity,  and  the  Cromwellian  aspirations  of  Jehu,  the 
Israelite  captain.  In  the  still  small  voice  at  Horeb,  it  was 
made  known  to  him  that  these  two  men  were  to  subvert  the 
authority  of  their  respective  kings  and  reign  in  their  stead. 
Going  back  from  Mt.  Sinai,  one  of  his  first  acts  was  to  sum- 
mon Elisha,  then  a  young  man,  living  at  Abel-meholah,  (its 
site  unknown,)  to  follow  him.  Elisha  seems  to  have  been  a 
person  of  property ;  and  the  result  of  his  call  was  such  as  to 
serve  as  a  lesson  to  every  man  who  feels  himself  called  to  fol- 
low Jesus.  He  took  one  of  the  twelve  yoke  of  oxen  with 
which  he  was  ploughing,  killed  them  and  used  the  very  im- 
plements with  which  they  were  laboring  to  make  a  farewell 
feast  to  his  friends.  The  scene  as  it  is  given  us  in  the  Bible 
is  very  graphic  and  beautiful ;  Elijah  in  calling  the  young 
man  seems  to  do  it  in  the  most  artless  and  naive  fashion,  as 
though  not  conferring  any  remarkable  honor ;  while  Elisha  re- 
ceived the  summons  with  the  most  hearty  faith,  and  the  most 
complete  giving  of  himself  up  to  the  work  of  entering  into  the 
mission  of  Elijah. 

And  yet  what  a  wonderful  contrast  between  the  men !  Eli- 
jah clad  in  his  rough  sheepskin  mantle,  having  a  leather  strap 
around  his  loins,  his  hair  long  and  streaming,  abrupt  in  speech 
and  having  the  manner  of  a  wild  Arab  ;  Elisha  young,  dressed 
in  the  ordinary  garb  of  an  Israelite,  gentle  in  his  manners  and 
courtly  in  his  speech.  And  yet  between  these  two  there 
sprang  up  at  once  a  relation  most  tender  and  delightful ; 
and  Elisha  seems  in  the  close  of  Elijah's  life  as  devoted  and 
loving  as  a  wife  or  daughter.  For  Elijah,  like  many  men  of 
rough  exterior,  of  curt,  unpolished  speech,  and  fiery  nature. 


840  ELISHA    ENTERS   ON    HIS   LIFE-WORK. 

was  also  very  strong  in  his  affections  and  loved  his  friends 
with  an  intensity  unknown  to  less  rugged  and  powerful  na- 
tures ;  and  this  affection  was  met  and  responded  to  with  entire 
devotion  by  the  more  cultivated  and  softly-spoken  Elisha. 
Their  journey  from  Gilgal,  up  in  the  hills  north  of  Bethel, 
(not  the  Gilgal  down  by  the  Jordan,)  to  Bethel,  from  Bethel 
to  Jericho  and  from  Jericho  to  the  place  of  translation  among 
the  hills  of  Gilead,  Elijah's  childhood  home,  is  beautifully 
told  and  reveals  a  friendship  as  touching  and  as  romantic  as  that 
of  David  and  Jonathan. 

I  have  been  struck  with  the  prompt  manner  in  which  Elisha 
addressed  himself  to  his  life-work  directly  after  his  great  teacher 
had  passed  out  of  his  sight.  There  was  no  sitting  down  in 
idle  and  useless  grief;  there  was  the  immediate  addressing 
of  himself  to  the  work  in  hand.  He  at  once  enters  upon  his 
active  career,  and  although  the  first  scene  in  which  he  appears 
is  one  which  is  calculated  to  awaken  our  wonder,  yet  it  is  ex- 
ceptional to  the  whole  tenor  of  his  life,  and  is  immediately  fol- 
lowed by  that  long  list  of  beneficent  acts  which  make  his 
works  if  not  his  words  immortal.  As  he  was  going  up  that 
rough  mountain  road,  now  known  as  the  Wady  Suweinit, 
which  runs  from  the  site  of  Jericho  to  that  of  Bethel,  and 
which  still  maintains  the  same  jagged  and  difficult  character 
which  it  did  when  it  was  so  often  traversed  by  the  sons  of  the 
prophets,  Elisha  was  laughed  to  scorn  by  the  children,  and 
called  down  upon  them  the  curse  of  the  Lord.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  Elisha  was  not  at  that  time  the  aged  venerable 
man  whose  form  is  given  us  in  children's  books,  bowed  down 
with  infirmity,  but  a  young  and  athletic  man  not  over  thirty, 
and  with  more  than  half  a  century  of  labors  before  him.  His 
appearance  was  ridiculously  mean  and  insignificant  after  the 
imposing  and  wild  and  awful  Elijah,  and  every  child  saw  it 
and  felt  it.  That  this  young  man,  dressed  in  the  ordinary  way, 
and  wearing  his  hair  short  (mistranslated  in  our  Bibles  bald- 
head)  should  be  the  successor  of  that  man  whose  mantle,  gir- 
dle, and  long,  wild  locks  were  known  throughout  the  country, 


I 


CALM   FLOW   OF   ELISHA's   LIFE.  341 

awakened  the  scorn  even  of  the  children,  and  they  hooted  at 
him  on  the  very  highway. 

But  how  shall  we  explain  the  curse  which  Elisha  called 
down  upon  them,  so  exceptional  to  his  whole  life  ?  Almost 
everywhere  else  he  is  a  bearer  of  blessings,  of  abundance,  of 
happiness ;  here  he  brings  in  destruction.  To  the  mind  of 
some  this  seems  unaccountable.  But  it  is  not  so.  Elijah  corres- 
ponds well  with  John  the  Baptist,  and  Elisha  with  our  Blessed 
Lord ;  yet  although  so  many  of  the  wonders  which  are  told 
in  connection  with  EUsha  are  anticipations,  even  in  their  very 
form,  of  those  which  Jesus  wrought,  yet  the  one  was  human, 
the  other  divine.  In  one  we  are  to  look  for  all  perfection,  in 
the  other  not.  When  Jesus  was  asked  whether  he  would  call 
down  fire  ujDon  those  who  troubled  him,  he  said,  "  Ye  know 
not  what  spirit  ye  are  of."  But  in  this  we  only  see  how  far 
the  Christian  religion  rises  above  the  flights  of  human  perfec- 
tion. In  Elisha  we  are  not  to  look  for  perfect  exemption  from 
the  infirmities  of  the  human  spirit.  And  when  we  bear  in 
mind  that  he  did  not  feel  himself  insulted  in  his  own  person, 
but  as  the  successor  of  Elijah,  and  that  the  honor  of  his  God 
was  at  stake,  we  may  not  wonder  so  much  that  he  was  tempted 
to  utter  words  which  should  cause  the  whole  population,  young 
and  old,  to  see  that  in  spite  of  his  young  face  and  his  every- 
day garb,  he  was  the  recognized  follower  of  liim  whose  coun- 
tenance all  had  feared. 

But  after  the  outbreak  of  this  curse  on  the  children,  the 
story  of  Elisha  is  most  calm  and  peaceful,  a  record  of  good 
and  kindly  deeds.  I  need  not  narrate  them  all,  for  their  story 
is  told  in  the  singularly  picturesque  and  felicitous  style  of 
Scripture,  and  is  absolutely  fascinating.  The  story  of  the 
spring  which  was  healed  by  the  salt,  and  whose  gushing  waters 
may  be  seen  even  now  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  site  of  Jer- 
icho ;  the  supplying  of  the  widow's  oil  so  that  all  the  vessels 
in  her  house  were  not  able  to  hold  it,  the  relieving  of  the 
Shunammite  woman  of  her  barrenness,  the  subsequent  restor- 
ation of  her  chnd  to  life,  and  later  still  the  restoration  of  her 
21 


342         elisha's  more  than  kingly  gkeatness. 

property,  the  taking  away  of  the  poisonous  qualities  which 
lurked  in  the  pot  at  Gilgal ;  the  enlargement  of  the  first  fruits^ 
of  the  man  from  Baal-shaalislia,  so  that  they  sufficed  for  a 
great  multitude;  the  cleansing  of  Naaman,  the  great  Syrian 
lord ;  the,  causing  of  the  axe  to  swim,  the  supplying  of  Sama-I 
ria  with  an  abundance  of  flour, — all  these  things  read  very 
much  like  the  life  of  the  Saviour,  and  are  the  blessed  over- 
flow of  a  life  which  seems  a  kind  of  prelude  to  the  Gospel. 

The  story  of  Elisha's  wonders  is  much  more  fully  told  than 
is  that  of  the  kings  during  whose  reigns  he  lived.  He  seems 
indeed  to  have  been  pre-eminently  the  great  man  of  his  time, 
and  to  have  eclipsed  not  only  the  monarch  of  his  own  country, 
but  the  Kings  of  Judah  and  Syria.  The  whole  tenor  of  the 
language  which  describes  him  indicates  that  before  him  every 
knee  bowed.  The  terms  applied  to  him  indicate  the  most 
perfect  deference.  He  moves  across  the  page  of  the  sacred 
story  more  than  a  king.  He  anointed  kings,  he  gave  counsel 
to  them  in  time  both  of  war  and  of  peace ;  he  was  received 
by  them  with  splendors  accorded  to  none  but  princes ;  he 
dictated  to  them  as  from  a  place  superior  to  them  all.  He  is 
intimately  connected  with  all  the  great  events  of  his  day; 
and  it  was  he  who  anointed  Hazael  and  (by  another  hand) 
Jehu,  and  so  fulfilled  the  prediction  made  to  Elijah  at  Horeb. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

JEHU  AND  HIS  REIGN. 

Encroaching  Power  of  S^'ria — Combination  Thus  Enforced  Between  the  King- 
dom of  Israel  and  that  of  Judah — The  Syrians  Masters  of  Ramoth-gilead — 
The  City  Occupied  Temporarily  by  Jehu — Marriage  Alliances — Jehu  Ap- 
pointed King — The  Effect  of  the  Tidings  on  Him — Jehu  Hurries  to  the  City 
of  Jezreel — Riding  "  Like  Jehu" — Treachery  at  Court — Jezebel  at  the  Capital 
— Death  of  the  Wicked  Queen — Jehu's  First  Acts — The  Infamy  of  Athaliah. 

URING  all  Elisha's  life  there  was  a  constant  suc- 
cession of  hostilities  between  Syria  and  Israel.  The 
former  was  no  longer  the  bundle  of  separate  na- 
tions, rude  and  undisciplined,  which  it  had  been  in  the  time 
of  David ;  it  had  grown  to  be  a  strong  and  united  power.  It 
had  begun  to  encroach  perceptibly  on  the  northei'n  and  east- 
ern boundaries  of  Palestine.  Against  this  domineering  empire, 
Israel  and  Judah  had  combined  even  in  the  time  of  Ahab  and 
Jehoshaphat ;  and  it  was  to  the  growth  of  Syria  alone  that  the 
alliance  of  the  two  Hebrew  kingdoms  is  to  be  ascribed.  Had 
it  not  been  for  the  Syrian  encroachments,  the  kings  of  those 
two  Hebrew  kingdoms  would  have  been  at  perpetual  feuds 
with  each  other,  and  an  alliance  would  have  been  impossible. 
The  Syrians  had  gained  the  important  strategic  point  east 
of  the  Jordan,  known  as  Ramoth-gilead,  even  in  the  time  of 
Ahab,  and  it  was  before  its  walls  that  that  King  had  received 
his  death  wound.  Just  where  Ramoth-gilead  Avas  we  cannot 
with  certainty  say,  but  it  lay  beyond  question  deep  in  the  fast- 
nesses of  the  mountains,  and  has  with  some  probability  been 
identified  with  es  Salt.  After  the  death  of  Ahab  it  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  Syrians  till  during  the  convulsion  caused  by 


344  "RIDING   LIKE  JEHU." 

Hazael's  murder  of  Benhadad,  the  Syrian  army  was  withdrawn, 
and  the  city  was  occupied  temporarily  by  Jehu,  a  bold  Israelite 
general,  who  was  known  for  his  impetuous  horsemanship,  as 
well  as  for  his  warlike  and  ambitious  character.  Jehoram, 
the  son  of  Ahab,  was  then  King  of  Israel,  and  was  lying  ill 
of  a  wound  which  he  had  received  under  the  walls  of  that 
same  city  of  Ramoth-gilead.  Ahaziah,  his  nephew,  the  King 
of  Judah,  was  paying  him  a  visit,  and  the  two  Kings  were  to- 
gether in  the  summer  palace' at  Jezreel.  Jehoram,  the  son  of 
Jehoshaphat,  had  married  Athaliah,  the  infamous  daughter  of 
Ahab,  and  thus  the  two  families  were  allied,  not  merely  by 
war,  but  by  blood.  It  was  the  son  of  Jehoram  (of  Judah) 
and  Athaliah,  and  the  grandson  therefore  of  Ahab,  who  was 
now  visiting  Jehoram  (of  Israel),  the  son  of  Ahab.  While 
they  were  together,  the  army  was  at  Ramoth  under  the  com- 
mand of  Jehu.  At  this  juncture  a  young  man  was  deputed 
by  Elisha  to  cross  the  river  and  anoint  Jehu  to  be  King.  He 
did  so,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  bold  soldier  received  the 
tidings  was  characteristic  of  him.  The  other  generals  do  not 
seem  to  have  been  much  surprised,  and  appear  to  have  acqui- 
esced with  great  alacrity  in  the  new  movement,  and  to  have 
hailed  their  old  companion  as  King  without  delay.  Jehu,  not 
willing  that  any  tidings  of  the  event  should  reach  Jezreel  in 
advance  of  his  own  arrival,  gave  strict  orders  that  no  one 
should  leave  the  camp.  Then  ascending  his  chariot,  and  ac- 
companied by  his  friends,  he  drove  rapidly  down  the  gullies 
to  the  Jordan,  crossed  the  river,  and  hurried  furiously  on 
toward  the  gates  of  Jezreel,  where  was  the  wounded  and  con- 
valescent Jehoram  and  .his  nephew  Ahaziah  the  King  of  Judah. 
On  the  tower  of  Jezreel  a  man  was  stationed  to  look  always 
towards  the  east,  to  give  notice  of  any  possible  Syrian  inva- 
sion. The  watchman,  looking  down  the  pass  which  is  between 
Little  Hermon  and  the  hills  of  Gilboa,  saw  the  advancing  troop, 
and  reported  the  movement  to  the  King  below.  The  latter 
ordered  a  messenger  to  be  despatched  at  once,  who  hurried 
down  to  Jehu,  and  asked,  "Is  it  peace ? "     The  reply  was 


THE  STRATEGY   OF  JEHU. 


345 


characteristic,  "  What  have  I  to  do  with  peace ;  turn  thee  be- 
hind me."  "And  tlie  watchman  told,  saying  'The  messenger 
came  to  them,  but  he  cometh  not  again.'  Then  he  sent  out  a 
second  on  horseback,  and  said,  'Then  saith  the  king,  Is  it 
peace?'  Now  Jehu  answered,  'What  have  I  to  do  with 
peace,  turn  thee  behind  me.'  "  By  this  time  they  were  so  neai 
that  the  watchman  could  see  the  manoeuvre,  and  could  also 
discern  that  the  furious  driver  was  no  other  than  Jehu,  whose 


ANCIENT  CHARIOT. 


stormy,  impatient  and  impetuous  character  were  so  well  indi- 
cated by  his  driving.  He  rapidly  approached.  The  Israelite 
King  rose  from  his  bed,  and  mounting  his  chariot  and  taking 
his  royal  nephew  along  with  him,  he  hastened  out  to  meet 
the  dreaded  soldier  whose  errand  was  so  clear.  "  And  it  came 
to  pass  when  Joram  saw  Jehu  that  he  said,  '  Is  it  peace,  Jehu  ? ' 
And  he  answered,  '  What  peace  so  long  as  the  whoredoms  of 
thy  mother  Jezebel  and  her  witchcrafts  are  so  many ! '  And 
Joram  turned  his  hands  and  fled  and  said  to  Ahaziah,  '  There 


346  DKE^VDFUL   END    OF   JEZEBEL. 

is  treachery,  O  Ahaziiih.' "  At  that  instant  Jehu  drew  his 
bow  with  liis  full  strength  and  gave  Jehoram  a  wound  which 
caused  instant  death.  It  so  fell  out,  that  he  was  at  that  very 
instant  riding  through  the  vineyard  of  Naboth  the  Jezreelite. 
His  body  was  cast  out  into  that  very  field  which  his  father 
had  gained  by  infamy,  and  so  the  old  prediction  of  Elijah  was 
fulfilled.  Ahaziah  fled,  but  was  pursued  and  was  slain  at  one 
of  the  passes  which  lead  from  the  plain  of  Esdraelon  up  to 
Mount  Carmel.  His  body  was  taken  to  Samaria  and  subse- 
quently to  Jerusalem,  where  he  was  buried  in  the  sepulchre 
of  David. 

Meanwhile  Jehu  hastened  on  and  entered  the  city.  Jez- 
ebel, then  advanced  in  years  Avas  there,  and  endeavoring  to 
disguise  the  ravages  of  time,  she  drew  a  line  of  red  about  her 
eyes  in  the  Oriental  fashion,  to  give  more  brilliancy  to  the 
iris,  and  adorning  her  head,  she  looked  out  at  a  window. 
And  not  content  with  thus  endeavoring  to  propitiate  the  bold 
soldier  by  charming  him  with  the  faded  remnants  of  her 
beauty,  she  had  recourse  to  one  strike  more.  Reminding  him 
of  that  former  usurper  Zimri,  who  like  him,  had  slain  the 
King  and  mounted  to  the  throne,  to  be  himself  cast  down 
after  a  mere  seven  days'  reign,  she  asked,  "  Had  Zimri  peace, 
who  slew  his  master  ?  "  Testing  the  loyalty  of  her  compan- 
ions by  a  searching  question,  and  discovering  that  their  sym- 
pathy was  with  himself  and  not  with  Jezebel,  he  commanded 
them  to  throw  her  out  of  the  window.  They  did  so,  and 
the  King  pressed  into  the  palace  and  immediately  sate  down 
to  eat  and  to  drink.  But  a  touch  of  compunction  came  over 
him  when  he  remembered  her  royal  lineage,  and  lie  gave  com- 
mand, "  Go,  see  now  this  cursed  woman  and  bury  her,  for  she 
is  a  King's  daughter."  But  the  dogs,  then  as  now  the  scav- 
engers of  the  East,  had  faithfully  done  their  work.  Nothing 
was  left  of  her  but  her  skull  and  the  bones  of  her  hands  and 
feet.  And  when  he  heard  how  completely  they  had  done  their 
work,  he  was  reminded  of  the  old  prediction.  And  he  said, 
"  This  is  the  word  of  the  Lord,  which  he  spake  by  his  ser- 


THE   FIERCE   AND    SOLPTERLY   JEHU. 


347 


vant  Elijah  the  Tishhite,  saying,  In  the  portion  of  Jezreel 
shall  dogs  eat  the  flesh  of  Jezebel ;  and  the  carcass  of  Jeze- 
bel shall  be  as  dung  upon  the  face  of  the  field  in  the  portion 
of  Jezreel,  so  that  they  shall  not  say,  '  This  is  Jezebel.'  " 

The  reign  of  Jehu  was  characterized  by  the  same  qualities 
which  he  manifested  in  the  steps  which  he  took  to  secure  the 
throne  ;  the  same  fierce  and  soldierly  spirit,  the  same  reticence, 
the  same  cunning,  the  same  energy  and  furious  determination 
of  purpose.     Ilis  tliiving  was  a  good  index,  so  far  as  it  went, 


535iJ^^3ll3&p 


^ 


SUSPENDED   BATTERING  RAM. 

Used  in  beating  down  the  walls  of  such  gates  as  were  those  of  Samaria. 


of  his  energy  and  swiftness  of  act.  His  first  step  was  to 
destroy  the  entire  house  of  Ahab,  and  that  of  Ahaziah  as 
well,  and  in  this  infamous  wdckedness  he  nearly  succeeded. 
Of  the  roj^al  house  of  Israel,  not  a  scion  remained  alive.  In 
the  southern  kingdom,  Athaliah,  daughter  of  Ahab  and  Jeze- 
bel, and  widow  of  the  King  of  Judah,  seconded  the  bloody 
work  of  Jehu,  and  exterminated  all  her  children,  in  order 
that  she  might  still  remain  queen,  leaving  alive  only  Joash,  her 
infant  son,  who  was  hidden  by  his  aunt,  and  brought  up  in 


348  CLOSE   OF  JEHU's   REIGN. 

great  secrecy  by  her.  The  infamy  of  Athaliah  has  made  her 
name  a  hissing  through  all  successive  ages,  and  in  modem'] 
times  Racine  in  France  and  Mendelssohn  in  Germany,  the 
one  in  tragedy  and  the  other  in  music,  have  commemorated" 
her  dreadful  and  most  unmotherly  act.  Of  all  the  heirs  to 
both  royal  houses  only  one,  the  child  Joash,  remained  alive. 
This  allowed  Athaliah  to  remain  mistress  of  the  southern 
throne,  and  Jehu  of  the  northern. 

Of  Jehu's  reign  we  have  few  incidents  bequeathed  to  us, 
and  nothing  told  with  any  fulness  except  the  manner  in  which 
he  destroyed  all  the  Baal  priests,  and  so  rooted  out  that  wor- 
ship from  Israel.  Uniting  himself  with  the  austere  Jehona- 
dab,  who  was  not  of  Hebrew,  but  of  Arabian  birth,  he,  with 
the  secrecy  and  cunning  characteristic  of  him,  pretended  to 
be  a  greater  devotee  at  the  shrine  of  Baal  than  even  Ahab 
had  been,  and  gathered  within  the  temple  of  that  god  at 
Samaria  the  entire  body  of  prominent  Baal  worshipers  in  the 
whole  kingdom.  Securing  them  there  he  descended  upon  them 
with  the  sword,  destroyed  them  all,  burned  their  temple,  and 
thus  brought  an  end  to  this  idolatry  in  Israel.  Yet  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  his  long  reign,  which  extended  over  a  space  of 
twenty-eight  years,  he  relaxed  his  excessive  rigor  in  behalf 
of  the  Jehovah  worship,  and  favored  the  rites  which  had  al- 
ready become  fashionable  during  the  reigns  of  Ahab  and  his 
sons.  During  Jehu's  time  the  Syrian  difficulties  continued. 
That  strong  and  aggressive  empire,  which  had  now  gained  un- 
disputed possession  of  the  stronghold  east  of  the  Jordan,  now 
began  to  luiiiass  the  districts  west  of  the  river,  and  to  carry 
desolation  even  to  the  very  gates  of  Samaria. 


CHAPTER   XXVn. 

DOWNFALL   OF   ISRAEL. 

A  Line  of  Wicked  Kings— The  Old  Story  of  Jeroboam  Oft  Eepeated — Jehu 
Hardly  Better  than  the  Rest — Jeroboam  the  Second — A  Period  of  Crisis  and 
Calamities — Trouble  in  Syria — Rise  of  Assyria — The  Assyrian  Kings — The 
First  Invasion  and  the  Taking  of  the  People  of  the  Northern  Kingdom  Cap- 
tive— The  Next  Blow  of  the  Assyrians — Palestine  as  Viewed  by  the  Assyr- 
ians— Compared  with  Modern  European  Nations — A  Kingdom  Blotted  Out — 
Alleged  Modern  Discoveries  of  the  Ten  Tribes — The  Site  of  Nineveh — The 
Prophets  of  the  Bible — Their  Function  as  Preachers. 

T  would  be  of  little  profit  that  I  enter  into  the  story 
of  the  various  reigns  of  the  Israelite  kings.  With 
the  partial  exception  of  Jehu,  they  all  followed  in 
the  footsteps  of  Jeroboam,  and  forsook  the  purity  of  the 
Jehovah  worship,  for  that  disguised  worship  of  power  which 
Jeroboam  had  ushered  in  with  his  own  self-constructed  state 
religion.  Like  the  refrain  of  a  dirge,  the  mournful  words  re- 
cur with  reference  to  each  of  the  Israelite  kings,  that  "  he 
walked  in  the  way  of  Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Nebat,  who  made 
Israel  to  sin."  The  laws  of  God  were  trampled  on ;  the  Di- 
vine Being  himself  forgotten ;  the  purity  and  excellence  of 
Jehovah  had  passed  out  of  the  knowledge  of  men  and  noth- 
ing had  taken  their  place  but  hero  worship,  self-idolatry,  ad- 
miration of  human  will  and  intellectual  power,  and  a  blind 
adoration  of  the  forces  of  nature.  Even  Jehu,  who  had  made 
a  bold  stand  against  the  falsehoods  of  his  age,  was  a  kind  of 
rude  Cromwell,  a  man  with  Cromwell's  faults  without  his  vir- 
tues, and  failed  to  come  up  to  what  lay  within  his  grasp. 
His  overthrow  of  the  Baal  worship,  which  he  had  carried  out 
with  excessive  cruelty  and  with  fanatical  austerity,  was  barren 


850  UNBIPORTANT  REIGNS. 

in  permanent  results,  even  on  Jehu  himself.  The  dynasty 
which  he  founded  was,  however,  the  largest  of  all  in  the  north- 
ern kingdom,  for  it  lasted  a  hundred  and  three  years  and  em- 
braced live  monarchs,  descending  from  Jehu  in  regular  line. 
They  were  Jehoahaz,  Jehoash,  Jeroboam  II.  and  Zachariah. 
Only  one  of  the  descendants  of  Jehu  was  a  man  of  much 
power ;  that  was  Jeroboam  II.,  perhaps  the  greatest  prince 
who  ever  sat  on  the  throne  of  Israel.  He  reigned  forty-one 
years,  and  his  career  was  characterized  by  great  military  ex- 
ploits, which  although  narrated  very  briefly  in  the  closing 
verses  of  II.  Kings,  xiv.,  show  great  prowess  and  skill  on  the 
part  of  the  monarch.  He  regained  and  re-established  the 
whole  eastern  border  of  the  kingdom,  from  the  northern  limit, 
the  "  Entering  of  Hamath  "  down  to  the  Dead  Sea ;  recon- 
quered Damascus,  and  the  city  of  Hamath,  and  so  showed 
himself  superior  to  the  great  Syrian  empire,  whose  capital, 
Damascus,  had  during  the  reign  of  Hazael,  dominated  so 
imperiously  over  the  adjoining  kingdom  of  Israel.  Yet  the 
details  of  this  mighty  man's  reign  have  all  perished.  The  loss 
of  one  of  the  important  books  which  would  have  been  incor- 
porated in  our  Bible,  the  "  Chronicles  of  the  Kings  of  Israel," 
deprives  us  of  much  which  would  have  been  most  interesting, 
and  which  has  perished  forever ! 

With  the  reigns  of  the  few  Kings  that  followed,  we  have 
little  to  do,  for  they  were  men  of  no  great  importance,  and 
quickly  passed  away.  It  was  a  period  of  crises  and  calami- 
ties, and  brings  back  the  time  when  Israel  was  a  new  Idng- 
dom,  and  one  dynasty  followed  another  in  quick  succession. 
Zachariah,  the  last  King  of  tRe  house  of  Jehu,  reigned  but 
six  months.  He  was  slain  by  Shallum,  an  ambitious  usurper, 
who  reigned  but  one  month.  His  reign  in  turn  was  sub- 
verted by  Menahem,  who  was  followed  by  his  son  Pekaaiah, 
and  then  his  dynasty  came  to  an  end.  It  was  a  period  of  civU. 
war,  confusion  and  bloodshed. 

Meanwhile  the  foreign  relations  of  the  country  underwent 
a  complete  change.     At  the  time  when  the  Syrian  empire  be- 


352  EISE  OF   NINEVEH. 

gan  to  rise  in  its  strength,  and  to  work  downward  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Jordan,  and  to  make  troublesome  incursions  into 
Western  Palestine,  Israel  and  Judah  ceased  their  feuds  and 
entered  into  close  alliance  against  this  formidable  power  on  the 
north-east.  Hence  the  union  between  the  house  of  Jehosh- 
«phat  and  that  of  Aliab  which  has  been  already  described. 
But  at  length  there  began  to  emerge  into  sight  another  neigh- 
bor on  the  east,  who  threatened  to  be  more  troublesome  than 
even  Syria  had  been.  This  was  the  young  but  mighty  empire 
of  Assyria,  under  the  shadow  of  Ararat.  Its  cap- 

ital was  Nineveh  on  the  Tigris.  That  it  had  been  powerful  and 
had  dominated  over  Israel  at  an  early  day  is  plain  from  the 
discovery  of  a  black  obelisk,  which  may  be  seen  in  the  British 
Museum,  on  which  is  inscribed  that  Jehu,  the  son  of  Omri, 
paid  tribute  to  the  Assyrian  King,  Shalmaneser  I.  Even 
Jehu  scpms,  therefore,  to  have  been  a  Idnd  of  suzerain  of  As- 
syria. There  was  no  invasion,  however,  till  the  time  of  Me- 
nawem,  King  of  Israel,  who,  we  find,  struck  at  Tiphsah,  on 
the  Euphrates,  probably  a  western  frontier  city  of  the  Assyr- 
ian King,  and  put  the  people  to  death  in  the  most  indiscrim- 
inating  and  savage  manner.  The  act  seems  to  have  been 
savagely  resented  by  Pul,  the  Assyrian  King,  who  descended 
upon  Israel  and  carried  away  a  large  part  of  the  people  into 
captivity.  Pul  did  not  enter  the  capital,  however,  but  spared 
the  district  immediately  around  Samaria,  and  confined  his  de- 
vastations to  the  mountain-country  east  of  the  Jordan,  and  to 
the  tract  north  of  the  plain  of  Esdraelon.  It  was  a  great 
blow,  however,  and  struck  at  the  very  life  and  strength  of 
the  nation.     This  was  the  first  captivity  of  Israel. 

The  next  and  more  decisive  blow  was  struck  during  the 
reign  of  Hoshea.  The  immediate  occasion  was  the  discovery 
by  the  Assyrians  of  an  alliance  between  the  Israelite  King 
and  the  monarch  of  Egypt.  And  this  brings  into  view  the 
practical  value  of  Palestine  and  the  relation  which  it  now 
bore  to  the  world.  To  us  it  is  an  interesting  country,  and  its 
history  an  interesting  history,  because  it  is  so  immediately  con- 


m§/k,*¥mi. 


;-/ 


^<'^^4i?jiiay  w  ^■■'  ^Mi^ 


I 


854  BLOTTING   OUT   OF  A   KINGDOM. 

nected  with  our  own  Christian  faith  ;  and  in  comparison  with 
its  records,  those  which  relate  to  the  other  great  nations  of 
the  world  fade  into  insignificance.  Yet  the  men  of  that  time 
saw  nothing  of  this.  To  them  there  were  but  two  great  empires 
in  the  world,  that  of  Egypt,  which  had  thus  far  reigned  with- 
out a  rival,  and  the  new,  ambitious  and  rapidly  rising  empire 
of  Assyria,  with  Nineveh  with  its  600,000  people,  its  lordly 
capital.  While  Egypt  had  no  rival,  she  could  well  afford  to 
let  Palestine  alone ;  it  did  not  trouble  her,  it  was  a  little  se- 
cluded mountain  block  lying  apart  by  itself,  and  was  an  en- 
tirely innocent  and  unoffending  thing.  But  when  there  began 
to  spring  up  on  the  Tigris,  another  great  world  power,  then , 
this  mountain  block  which  rose  between  the  Tigris  and  Eu- 
phrates plain  and  the  Nile  plain,  began  to  assume  great  im- 
portance ;  and  it  was  a  question  of  time  which  should  possess 
it  first.  It  was  like  Saxony  during  the  late  German  war ; 
and  as  both  Prussia  and  Austria  longed  for  some  pretext  which 
would  allow  t.hem  to  seize  upon  that  beautiful  hill-country 
which  lay  between  the  plains  of  Prussia  and  those  of  Bohe- 
mia, so  did  Assjaia  and  Egypt  both  covet  the  natural  outpost 
and  fortress  of  Palestine.  No  sooner  had  it  been  reported  in 
Nineveh,  therefore,  that  Hoshea,  the  Israelite  King,  had  be- 
gun to  intrigue  with  So,  the  Egyptian  King,  when  Shalma- 
neser  II.,  the  monarch  of  Assyria,  came  down  upon  the  land 
with  his  legions,  besieged  Samaria  for  three  long  years,  took 
it  at  last,  inflicted  horrible  atrocities  upon  the  people,  led 
them  away  into  bondage,  planting  them  in  his  own  cities  on 
the  tributaries  of  the  Euphrates,  and  peopled  Samaria  with 
colonists  of  his  own.  This  was  the  second  captivity,  and  with 
it  came  the  blotting  out  of  that  ill-fated  kingdom  from  the 
face  of  the  earth.  I  do  not  suppose  that  all  the  people  were 
carried  away  ;  but  unquestionably  all  persons  of  any  influence 
met  this  unhappy  fate,  and  once  established  in  the  Assyrian 
territory,  they  lost  all  their  national  individuality,  and  were 
sooner  or  later  merged  in  the  foreign  population  with  which 
they  lived.     They  differed  from  the  Jews  of  the  present  day 


DISAPPEARANCE   OF   THE  TEN   TSIBES.  855 

in  the  loose  hold  which  they  had  on  their  old  Jehovah  wor- 
ship. Unlike  the  people  of  the  southern  kingdom  who  had 
never  been  brought  into  dangerous  and  alluring  contact  with 
neighboring  tribes,  the  people  of  the  northern  kingdom  had 
from  time  immemorial  been  under  the  fascinating  influence  of 
the  Phoenician  rites,  as  well  as  those  of  Syria.  There  was, 
therefore,  very  little  fixed  religious  principle  in  the  northern 
kingdom,  and  when  the  Ten  Tribes  were  carried  away,  wha^i 
there  was,  disappeared.  I  am  extremely  incredulous  respect- 
ing the  stories  which  have  been  current  of  late  years,  touch- 
ing discoveries  of  those  lost  Ten  Tribes.  There  is  no  question 
that  the  people  who  were  carried  into  captivity  were  as  cer- 
tainly merged  in  the  Assyrian  population,  as  it  is  unquestion- 
able that  the  numerous  foreigners  who  are  landing  yearly  on 
our  shores  will,  ere  long,  be  an  unrecognizable  part  of  our 
own  population. 

"  Like  the  dew  on  the  mountain, 
Like  the  foam  on  the  river, 

Like  the  bubble  on  the  fountain, 
They  are  gone,  and  forever." 

The  discovery  in  our  own  time  of  the  site  of  Ancient  Nin- 
eveh, at  Mosul  on  the  Tigris,  confirms  to  the  full,  all  that  the 
Scriptures  tell  us  of  the  greatness  and  magnificence  of  that  city 
in  its  imperial  days.  Even  the  story  of  Jonah  entering  it  a 
three  days'  journey  does  not  seem  incredible,  when  we  remem- 
ber that  each  house  was  a  garden  house,  and  had  its  park 
around  it,  like  the  suburbs  of  Boston  and  Geneva.  There 
seems  to  have  been  a  population  of  about  600,000  at  that  time, 
and  traces  of  the  city  are  found  for  many  miles.  The  limits 
of  this  work  will  not  allow  me  to  enter  upon  any  descriptions 
of  the  wonderful  discoveries  which  have  been  made  by  Botta 
and  by  Layard  ;  their  works  can  be  found  in  all  good  libraries, 
and  the  theme  is  one  of  such  fascinating  interest  and  of  such 
freshness,  that  almost  all  intelligent  people  have  given  it  more 
or  less  attention.  It  is  by  no  means  the  least  recompense 
which  one  has  for  crossing  the  Atlantic,  that  in  the  British 


356     THE  PROPHETS  WERE  MAINLY  PREACHERS. 

Museum  are  preserved  the  winged  lions  and  bulls,  the  huge 
reliefs,  the  great  obelisks,  and  shafts,  and  pillars  which  have 
been  disinterred  at  Mosul,  and  which  bring  back  to  us  with  an 
unfading  charm,  the  features  and  names  of  the  men  who  were 
the  contemporaries  of  the  Israelite  kings. 

While  the  authors  of  the  historical  books  of  Scripture  have 
preserved  for  us  what  may  be  called  an  outside  view  of  the 
times  of  the  kings,  of  the  wars  which  they  carried  on,  the 
cities  they  built,  the  great  achievements  which  they  effected, 
and  the  idolatries  which  they  introduced,  another  class  of  writ- 
ers have  preserved  for  us  an  inside  view  of  those  tunes.  These 
were  the  prophets ;  and  if  we  will  turn  to  their  pages  we  shall 
find  that  they  give  in  strong  and  glowing  language,  a  most 
vivid  picture  of  their  age.  The  arrangement  of  the  books  of 
the  Bible  is  one  which  only  perplexes  the  mind,  and  no  one 
would  conjecture  that  Jonah,  whose  prophecy  is  jDlaced  after 
Ezekiel  and  Daniel,  was  a  contemj)orary  of  Elisha  and  lived 
during  the  reign  of  Jehu.  The  prophets  were  the  real  preach- 
ers of  their  age.  In  a  time  of  great  sin  they  rose  up  and  pro- 
tested with  the  greatest  faithfulness  and  zeal  against  the 
idolatries  and  the  crimes  of  their  time.  All  those  dark  trans- 
gressions which  disfigure  our  modern  civilization,  drunkenness, 
licentiousness,  fraud  and  bribery,  were  prevalent  then;  and 
the  pro^^hets  were  the  men  whose  pure  spirits  made  them  stand 
up  in  the  courts  of  kings  and  testify  to  the  rule  of  God  and 
his  judgments  upon  all  who  break  his  law.  It  may  be  said 
with  especial  emphasis,  that  the  prophets  were  "political 
preachers ; "  for  a  large  share  of  the  sins  of  the  age  were  the 
sins  of  rulers  against  the  ruled ;  and  no  preacher  could  then 
be  faithful  to  his  trust  who  did  not  stand  up  and  testify  in  the 
presence  of  all  that  line  of  wicked  and  idolatrous  princes,  that 
the  wrath  of  God  rested  upon  them  and  upon  all  the  other 
great  nations  if  they  forsook  him  and  did  evil.  We  are  ac- 
customed to  look  at  the  prophets  as  simply  seers  ;  to  think  that 
their  great  mission  was  to  foretell  coming  events.  I  do  not  deny 
that  they  saw  the  results  that  sin  must  produce ;  that  they  de- 


THE  PROPHETS  AS  PREACHERS.  357 

tected  clearly  the  certain  doom  which  must  come  to  the  great 
and  wicked  nations  of  the  earth;  but  this  was  but  secondary 
and  not  primary ;  it  was  not  the  great  work  to  which  they  were 
called.  Above  everything  else  was  this,  that  they  were  preach- 
ers ;  and  any  one  who  will  read  the  pages  of  Micah  and  Hosea, 
two  of  the  most  plain  spoken  of  them  all,  will  see  that  while 
they  predicted  God's  doom  on  sin,  and  were  always  looking  for- 
ward for  a  Saviour  to  arise,  who  should  bring  Israel  out  of  her 
humiliation  and  Judah  out  of  her  sin,  their  message  was  in  the 
same  key  with  that  of  John  the  Baptist,  a  call  to  repentance, 
a  proclamation  of  God's  mercy  to  the  penitent,  and  of  his 
wrath  upon  the  guilty.  The  prophets  who  lived  during  the 
declining  days  of  the  northern  kingdom,  were  Jonah,  Joel, 
Hosea,  Amos,  Micah,  Nahum  and  Isaiah.  The  career  of  the 
latter  outlasted  the  continuance  of  Israel,  and  is  connected 
specificall}"  with  the  reign  of  Hezekiah  of  Judah.  I  trust 
that  ere  long  we  shall  have  in  general  circulation  an  edition  of 
the  Bible  which  shall  contain  the  text  of  the  authorized  ver- 
sion, but  wrought  into  a  strictly  chronological  form,  so  that 
our  readers  can  have  the  books  of  prophecy  brought  in  at  just 
the  epoch  where  they  can  be  read  to  advantage,  and  the  whole 
Bible  made  a  unit,  from  the  first  chapter  to  the  last. 

The  duraaon  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  from  its  establish- 
ment by  Jeroboam  down  to  its  being  blotted  from  the  hst  of 
nations,  was  two  hundred  and  fifty-five  years. 


99 


1 


CHAPTER   XXVm. 

THE  ANNALS  OF  JUDAH— THE  GOOD  KING  HEZEKIAH. 

The  Annals  of  Judah  not  so  Remarkable  for  Wickerl  Kings  as  those  of  Israel 

Instances  of  Piety  on  the  Throne — Hezekiah  the  Most  Memorable  of  them 
all— His  Life  Narrated  in  Three  Different  Parts  of  tlie  liil)le— Tlie  Book  of 
Isaiah — The  Former  Assyrian  Invasions — Tlie  One  which  Now  Occurred — 
Sennacherib,  His  Character — The  Memorial  of  Him  at  Dog  River,  Near 
Beyrout — Other  Memorials  There— The  Assyrian  Army — What  was  Ex- 
pected— Isaiah's  Description  of  the  Approach — Topographical  Worth  of  His 
Description — The  Assyrians  did  not  Advance  on  these  Lines,  however — 
The  Siege  of  Lachisli — Its  Ruins — The  Insulting  Message  of  the  Assyrian 
King  to  Hezekiah — Not  Difficult  to  Take  Jerusalem — No  Words  of  Submis- 
sion, however  —  The  Plague  in  the  Night  —  Byron's  Lines  —  The  Danger 
Passed — A  Trace  of  this  Fragment  of  History  Found  in  Herodotua. 

I  HE  annals  of  Judah  are  not  so  remarkable  for  wicked 
kings  as  are  those  of  Israel.  From  first  to  last  in 
the  northern  kingdom  is  not  one  royal  name  which 
stands  out  in  any  beautiful  and  attractive  light ;  while  in  the 
southern  kingdom  there  are  several.  Not  to  dwell  with  em- 
phasis on  Asa,  whose  conduct  may  have  been  dictated  by 
policy,  it  is  enough  to  point  at  the  names  of  Jehoshaphat, 
Uzziah,  Jotham,  Hezekiah  and  Josiah,  as  instances  of  piety 
on  the  throne,  such  as  can  hardly  be  surpassed  in  the  annals 
of  the  modern  kingdoms  of  Europe.  Still  almost  no  one  of 
them  was  perfect.  There  ever  comes  around  the  sad  refrain, 
"  Nevertheless  the  high  places  were  not  taken  away ; "  and  al- 
though this  was  thoroughly  done  in  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  yet 
even  in  the  reigns  of  David  and  Solomon  we  have  clear  indi- 
cations of  this  idolatrous  tendency  to  connect  the  worship  of 
God  with  the  tops  of  hills,  and  with  the  groves  uwually  found 


CHARACTER   OF   HEZEKIAH.  859 

there.  As  the  rule,  the  kings  of  Judah  were  not  only  more 
religious,  but  more  able,  than  those  of  Israel.  We  see  re- 
peated instances  among  them  of  men  of  great  intelligence  and 
grasp ;  signal  among  them  are  Uzziah,  Jehoshaphat  and  Heze- 
kiah.  They  labored  for  the  advancement  of  all  the  interests 
of  their  people ;  they  developed  agriculture ;  they  built  cities ; 
they  strengthened  Jerusalem ;  they  purified  the  natural  wor- 
ship and  kept  the  temple  in  repair  ;  they  established  their 
borders  in  security,  and  were  wise  and  efficient  kings.  Great- 
est of  them  all  was  Hezekiah,  and  second  to  him,  I  think,  was 
Uzziah.  It  would  be  vain  that  I  should  endeavor  to  draw  the 
portraits,  or  depict  the  actions  of  all  these  various  kings ;  the 
story  of  their  careers  is  told  with  great  felicity  in  the  Bible  it- 
self, and  those  who  wish  to  study  their  exploits  in  detail,  will 
find  the  Bible  the  best  hand-book.  But  on  the  reign  of  Heze- 
kiah I  must  linger  a  little ;  for  not  only  was  his  career  ex- 
tremely conspicuous,  so  that  it  was  the  deliberate  judgment 
of  his  chronicler  that  there  was  no  king  equal  to  him,  among 
those  who  went  before  him,  nor  in  those  who  followed  after 
him,  but  his  reign  was  characterized  by  an  invasion  which 
has  left  its  mark  on  the  annals  of  the  world. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the  story  of  Hezekiah's  life  is 
told  in  three  different  parts  of  the  Bible,  first  in  II.  Kings, 
then  witli  more  details  in  II.  Chronicles,  and  finally,  it  is  inter- 
jected into  the  heart  of  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah.  That  vivid, 
beautiful,  and  simple  fragment  of  prose  in  the  midst  of  the 
florid  and  fervid  utterances  of  the  book  known  as  Isaiah,  does 
not  jar  upon  the  ear,  but  it  is  in  the  strongest  contrast  with  what 
goes  before.  Strictly  speaking  that  book  seems  to  be  not  one 
but  two ;  the  first  thirty-nine  chapters  being  written  during 
the  reign  of  Uzziah,  Jotham,  Ahaz  and  Hezekiah,  and  the  last 
twenty-six  by  some  unknown  writer,  who  wrote  apparently 
during  the  captivity.  In  a  poetical  light,  however,  the  part 
by  the  "Great  Unnamed"  as  Ewald  calls  him,  appears  to  be 
as  rich  and  beautiful  as  that  which  is  from  the  hand  of  Isaiah 
himself;  and  as  some  of  the  Psalms  not  written  by  David,  but 


360  SENNACHERIB   OF   ASSYRIA. 

by  unknown  Hebrew  poets,  are  as  poetical  as  those  which 
came  from  his  royal  hand,  so  is  it  with  the  mysterious  author 
of  the  closing  chapters  of  the  book  of  Isaiah.  But  looking 
at  the  earlier  i)art  of  that  book,  the  first  thirty-nine  chapters 
it  may  be  noticed  in  passing  that  the  chief  reference  is  to  the 
reign  of  Hezekiah.  In  the  account  given  in  II.  Kings  and  in 
II.  Chronicles,  Ave  have  a  very  vivid,  yet  external  picture  of 
the  events  of  that  reign,  but  from  the  earlier  chapters  of 
Isaiah,  we  have  an  inside  view;  we  see  the  gradual  approach 
of  the  great  event  of  the  reign,  the  invasion  of  Sennacherib, 
and  hear  the  waves  of  that  vast  Assyrian  flood,  beating  on 
the  coast  of  Palestine,  at  first  faint  and  far,  then  ever  more 
and  more  resounding,  till  at  last  they  break  on  the  very  walls 
of  Jerusalem. 

We  have  already  pictured  other  Assyrian  invasions,  and 
seen  the  forces  of  Pul  and  Tiglath-pileser  bear  away  the  in- 
habitants of  the  northern  kingdom  and  blot  that  j^eople  from 
the  list  of  nations ;  but  the  later  invasion  was  of  more  for- 
midable character  yet.  Its  object  was,  however,  not  the  taking 
of  Palestine,  but  a  direct  attack  on  Egypt.  The  taking  of 
Jerusalem  and  the  southern  kingdom  was  purely  incidental, 
so  far  as  the  purposes  of  Sennacherib,  the  Assyrian  King,  was 
concerned.  To  the  Jews  of  course  their  own  point  of  view 
was  the  one  of  supreme  importance  ;  but  to  the  world  at  large, 
their  concerns  were  of  but  little  account  compared  with  the 
tremendous  contest  then  imminent  between  Assyria  and  Egypt. 

Sennacherib,  the  King  of  Nineveh  at  the  time  of  Hezekiah 
and  Isaiah,  is  one  of  the  great  names  of  history.  At  the  time 
of  his  invasion  of  Palestine,  he  left  a  memorial  which  is  not 
unworthily  placed,  and  which  commemorates  him  as  one  of 
the  greatest  of  the  Assyrian  Kings.  The  remains  which  have 
"been  discovered  in  the  Kouyunjik  corner  of  the  ruins  of  Nin- 
eveh, testify  to  his  greatness,  and  there  is  proof  enough  that 
so  far  as  splendor,  magnitude  and  luxury  are  concerned,  his 
capital  surpassed  some  of  the  great  cities  of  modern  times. 
The  excavations  which  have  been  made  by  Layard  in  the 


I 


SACIiED  SYMBOUC   TREE  OF  THE  ASSYRIANS.      FROM    LORD  ABERDEEN  S  liLACK  STONK. 
(Fergussoa's  Nineveh  and  Pentpotisj  p.  296.) 


ANCIENT   LAMPS   IN   BRITISH    MUSEUM. 

Ij  Bronze  from  N.  W.  palacci  Niinroud.  2,  Brooze  from  Kouy 
unjik  :i,  J,  Tern  Cotia  iiom  IVarka.  6,  Terra  CotU  from  Kouy 
injik. 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  THE   SIGNETS   OF   ANCIENT  KINGS. 
(Original  Size.) 


ASSYRIAN    KNIVES. 
From  originals  in  the  British  Museum. 


SENNACHERIB   ON    HIS   TIIRONB. 


662 


INTERESTING   MEMORIALS   OF   SENNACHERD3. 


ruins  opposite  Mosul,  on  the  Tigris,  are  full  of  interest,  andj 

confirm  all  thai 
we  might   infe:^ 
from  the  allusions  I 
of  the  Scriptures  to ' 
Sennacherib.     But 
most  interesting  of 
all  the    memorials 
of  him,  is  the  one 
from  a  little  north 
of  the  city  of  Bey- 
rout,    near   the 
mouth  of  the  Dog 
River.     On  the  es- 
carped walls  which 
shut  in  that  little 
stream,maybeseen 
four  tablets  which 
represent    entirely 
different  phases  of 
the  world's  history, 
commemorate    the 
lives    of    men   of 
marked  diversity  of 
characters,  and 
bring  together  the 
two  ends  of  the 
great   continuous 
line  of  history  in  the 
happiest  manner. 
Most    interesting 
of  them  all  is  one 
which  is  about 
three     thousand 
five  hundred  years 


KOMAN  AS. 


Old,  on  which  the  mighty  Sesostris  of  Egypt,  Rameses  the 


ADVANCE    OF  THE  ASSYRIAN   ARMY.  3G3 

Great,  has  recorded  his  name  and  his  exploits,  in  Egyptian 
hieroglyphics,  as  he  went  out  to  the  conquest  of  the  world, 
his  world.  Then  comes  another  tablet,  one  thousand  years 
younger,  on  which  the  haughty  Sennacherib  engraved  in  the 
wedge-shaped  letters  of  Assyria,  the  story  of  his  invasion. 
Then  comes  another,  still  a  thousand  years  younger,  on  which 
the  Roman  Emperor  Antoninus  has  recorded  in  Latin  the  story 
of  his  exploits  ;  and  then  with  a  leap  of  fifteen  hundred  years 
more,  we  have  the  name  of  Napoleon  III.,  Emperor  of  France, 
and  the  brief  history,  told  in  the  language  of  Paris,  of  the 
bloodless  invasion  of  Syria  in  1860.  Close  by  these  tablets 
runs  the  narrow  road,  between  the  base  of  the  Lebanon  moun- 
tains and  the  sea,  over  which  millions  of  pilgrims,  warriors, 
and  adventurers  have  passed,  from  the  morning  of  history 
down  to  the  present  time. 

After  passing  this  point,  the  Ass}Tian  army,  which  was  un- 
questionably one  of  those  enormous  aggregations  of  men  such 
as  we  associate  with  the  invasion  of  Greece  by  Xerxes,  poured 
down  the  land,  not  taking  the  mountain  road,  but  following 
as  far  as  possible  by  the  way  of  the  plain  of  Sharon.  They 
were  expected,  as  appears  by  the  closing  verses  of  Isaiah  x., 
by  another  route,  namely  by  the  regular  road  from  Shechem 
to  Jerusalem.  Hezekiah  and  his  counselors  knew  perfectly 
well  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  Sennacherib  to  pass  down 
into  Egypt  and  leave  Jerusalem  behind  them  untaken ;  but  it 
was  expected  that  the  Assyrians  would  not  go  down  into  the 
lowland  of  Philistia  and  commence  hostilities  there  till  they 
should  have  reduced  Jerusalem.  In  those  verses  at  the  close 
of  Isaiah  x.,  we  see  how  the  impassioned  mind  of  Isaiah  reck- 
oned on  their  advance,  and  all  those  names  indicate  as  on  a 
map,  the  advance  of  the  Assyrian  army,  taking  city  after  city, 
while  the  people  flee  in  their  despair  and  leave  all  desolate 
behind  them.  "  He  is  come  to  Aiath,  he  is  passed  to  Migron ; 
at  Michmash  he  hath  laid  up  his  carriages  ;  they  are  gone  over 
the  passage ;  they  have  taken  up  their  lodging  at  Geba ;  Ra- 
mah  is  afraid;  Gibeah  of  Saul  is  fled.     Lift  up  thy  voice,  O 


8Ci 


PREDICTIONS   OF   ISAIAH. 


daughter  of  Gallim:  cause  it  to  be  heard  unto  Laish,  O  poor 
Anathoth.  Madmouah  is  removed;  the  inhabitants  of  Gebim 
gather  themselves  to  flee.  As  yet  shall  he  remain  at  Nob 
that  day:  he  shall  shake  his  head  against  the  mount  of  the 
daughter  of  Zion,  the  hill  of  Jerusalem."  I  can  hardly  do 
better  than  to  transcribe  the  language  of  Ritter  in  relation  to 
the  territory  here  alluded  to  :  "  Directly  north  of  the  city,  and 
at  a  distance  of  twenty-five  minutes,  is  the  highland  known 


ROMAN  AND  BARBARIAN  COMBAT. 

as  Scopus,  whence  is  gained,  even  now,  an  imposing  view  of 
Jerusalem,  with  its  towers  and  minarets.  Only  a  quarter  of 
an  hour  towards  the  north-east  from  this  point,  may  be  seen 
in  the  valley  the  small  and  little-known  village  of  el-Gawiyeh ; 
north-west,  in  the  distance,  and  east  of  the  road  to  Nablus, 
er-Ram  (the  ancient  Ramah)  may  be  descried.  Going  north- 
ward it  is  necessary  to  cross  Wadi  Sueleim  before  reaching 
the  highland  on  which  lies  the  village  of  Anrata,  at  a  distance 
of  an  hour  and  a  quarter  from  Jerusalem. 


ADVANCE   ON   LACHISH.  365 

The  time  for  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  had  not  fully 
come  when  Isaiah  was  able  to  announce  that  the  Assyrian* 
army,  which  was  approaching  from  the  north,  should  be  driven 
from  their  camp  by  the  hand  of  pestilence.  The  approach  of 
the  army  is  announced,  thougli  not  hi  strategical  language,  by 
the  prophet ;  and  his  words,  though  uttered  in  the  manner  of 
a  seer,  have  a  great  deal  of  topographical  value,  and  aid  much 
in  giving  a  clear  view  of  the  district  north  of  Jerusalem,  where 
the  Assjmans  had  pitched  their  camp  ;  (Is.  x.  28-23).  Of  the 
places  mentioned  by  him,  Anata,  the  ancient  Anathoth,  dis- 
plays in  the  wall  and  some  great  hewn  stones  the  traces  of  its 
former  importance  ;  even  a  few  pillars  were  seen  by  Robinson 
among  the  ruins.  The  present  village  shows  but  a  few  huts, 
and  shelters  scarcely  a  hundred  inhabitants.  The  Ramah, 
alluded  to  by  Isaiah  as  crying  out  in  terror,  lies  on  a  cone- 
shaped  hill  towards  the  north-north-west,  where  the  village 
er-Ram  is  now  found;  Gibeah  of  Saul,  (now  Tell  el  Ful), 
with  its  high  heaps  of  stones,  is  more  to  the  south,  while 
Geba,  (the  modern  Jeba),  lies  directly  northward,  where  the 
Assyrian  army  encamped.  The  places  mentioned  by  the 
names  of  Madmenah,  Gebim  and  Nob,  lay  south  of  Anathoth, 
and  therefore  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Jerusalem  ;  the  site 
of  Nob  is  indicated  with  great  exactness  by  the  expression, 
"  He  shall  shake  his  hand  against  the  mount  of  the  daughter 
of  Zion,  the  hill  of  Jerusalem." 

But  the  Assyrian  host  did  not  advance  at  all  by  that  line, 
but  came  down  by  the  line  of  plains  between  the  hill-country 
and  the  JNIediterranean.  And  the  first  strong  point  \Yhich 
Sennacherib  attacked  was  not  Jerusalem,  but  Lachish,  a  city 
lying  in  the  middle  of  Philistia,  on  a  low  hill,  still  bearing  the 
huts  of  the  modern  village  of  Lakis.  It  was  then  one  of  the 
strongest  places  in  all  Palestine  ;  and  in  the  bas-reliefs  which 
have  been  discovered  by  Layard  in  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  com- 
memorating the  memorable  siege  of  Lachish,  it  can  be  clearly 
seen  that  the  city  was  defended  with  very  great  skill.  The 
whole  Assyrian  army,  numbering  how  many  thousands  we 


306 


THE   PLAGUE   IN   THE   NIGHT. 


know  not,  i)lanted  itself  before  the  walls  of  Laeliish,  and  while 
in  position  there,  tlie  king  sent  up  an  embassy  with  a  most  im- 
perious and  insulting  mes- 
sage to  King  Ilezekiah  at 
Jerusalem.  The  story  of  its 
reception  is  told  in  Kings, 
in  Chronicles,  and  in  It^aiah, 
xxxvi.  and  xxxvii.,with  great 
felicity.  Words  can  not  con- 
vey more  beautifully  than  do 
those  of  the  Bible,  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  King,  his 
chaplain  Isaiah,  and  his  coun- 
selors, received  the  two  mes- 
sages which  were  successive- 
ly sent  by  the  Assyrian  King 
and  the  truly  religious  man- 
ner in  which  the  whole  mat- 
ter was  laid  before  the  Lord. 
Throughout  the  whole,  both 
king  and  prophet  appear  in 
a  light  as  winning  to  us  as  it 
was  unquestionably  accept- 
able to  the  God  whom  they 
served.  The  situation  was 
one  of  extreme  peril.  Jeru- 
salem was  really  weak  in  its 
defences,  and  from  some  in- 
cidental passages  in  the  early 
chapters  of  Isaiah,  we  see 
that  there  were  clefts  in 
the  walls  through  which  it 
would  have  been  no  very 
difficult  thing  for  an  assailing  army  to  force  its  way.  Down 
in  Lachish  it  was  well  known  that  measures  of  extreme 
severity  had  been  dealt  out  to  the  captives  who  had  fallen 


ANCIENT  DIALS. 


®,^a  SmI*""'^""^"' 


I 


isii 


868  byron's  lines. 

into  the  hands  of  the  Assyrian  King  ;  and  in  the  tablets  which 
even  now  remain,  it  can  be  seen  that  they  were  flayed  ahve 
in  the  presence  of  the  hauglity  and  cruel  monarch.  The  mes- 
sage which  the  Rabshekah  bore  was  indicative  of  no  clement 
spirit  on  the  part  of  his  master  should  the  city  refuse  to  sur- 
render, and  defy  the  Assyrian  army.  Yet  strong  in  his  confi- 
dence in  the  Lord  God,  Hezekiah  sent  back  no  word  of 
submission  or  humiliation.  He  trusted  in  his  God,  and  the 
end  showed  that  he  was  wise  in  this.  While  the  great  foreign 
army  was  preparing  itself  for  an  assault  on  Jerusalem,  one  of 
those  sudden  and  devastating  plagues  which  were  and  are  tlie 
scourge  of  the  East,  broke  out  in  the  Assyrian  camp,  and 
nearly  two  hundred  thousand  men  became  its  speedy  victims. 
It  shattered  the  whole  campaign ;  caused  the  project  of  in- 
vading Egypt  and  of  attacking  Jerusalem  to  be  precipitately 
abandoned ;  compelled  Sennacherib  to  withdraw  in  haste  to 
his  own  country,  and  left  good  King  Hezekiah  and  his  wise 
friend  and  counselor,  Isaiah,  master  of  the  situation.  The 
story  of  that  Assyrian  invasion  has  been  beautifully  told  by  the 
poet  Byron,  whose  verses,  tliough  familiar,  I  will  venture  to 

quote : 

"The  Assyrian  came  down  like  a  ■wolf  on  tbe  fold, 
And  his  cohorts  were  gleaming  in  purple  and  gold  ; 
And  the  sheen  of  their  spears  was  like  stars  in  the  sea, 
When  the  blue  wave  rolls  nightly  on  deep  Galilee. 

♦'  Like  the  leaves  of  the  forest  when  summer  is  green, 
That  host  with  their  banners  at  sunset  were  seen, 
Like  the  leaves  of  the  forest  when  Autumn  hath  blown, 
That  host  on  the  morrow  lay  wither'd  and  strown. 

"  For  the  angel  of  death  spread  his  wings  on  the  blast, 
And  breathed  on  the  face  of  the  foe  as  he  passed ; 
And  the  eyes  of  the  sleepers  wax'd  deadly  and  chill, 
And  their  hearts  but  once  heaved  and  forever  grew  still! 

"  And  there  lay  the  steed  with  his  nostril  all  wide, 
But  through  it  there  roll'd  not  the  breath  of  his  pride  ; 
And  the  foam  of  his  gasping  lay  white  on  the  turf, 
But  cold  as  the  spray  of  the  rock -beating  surf. 


DEATH   OF    HEZEKIAH.  369 

♦*  And  there  lay  the  rider  distorted  and  pale, 
With  the  dew  on  his  brow  and  the  rust  on  his  mail; 
And  the  tents  were  all  silent,  the  banners  alone, 
The  lances  unlifted,  the  trumpet  unblown. 

"  And  the  widows  of  Ashur  were  loud  in  their  wail, 
And  the  idols  are  broke  in  the  temples  of  Baal; 
And  the  miglit  of  the  Gentile  unsmote  by  the  sword, 
Hath  perislied  like  snow  in  the  glance  of  the  Lord." 

And  thus  passed  away  that  great  danger  ;  and  the  moral  of 
that  wonderful  event  has  passed  into  the  history  of  the  world. 
The  destruction  of  the  Assyrian  array  filled  the  outlying  na- 
tions with  wonder,  and  we  are  told  that  they  sent  their  Kings 


THE  DIAL  OF  AHAZ. 


with  presents  to  Hezekiah,  to  be  offered  to  his  God.  The 
story  of  the  great  overthrow  reached  Egypt,  of  coiu-se,  and 
we  find  a  trace  of  it  in  the  tradition  which  Herodotus  records, 
that  the  invading  army  of  Sennacherib  was  attacked  by  an 
army  of  mice  which  consumed  them  utterly.  That  this  is  not 
correct,  is  reasonable  to  infer ;  but  that  the  Egyptian  tradition 
is  a  valuable  voucher  for  the  general  correctness  of  it,  is  clear. 
I  will  not  enter  into  the  other  events  of  Hezekiah's  reign, 
his  sickness  and  recovery,  and  the  wonderful  sign  on  the  dial 
of  Ahaz,  interesting  though  they  are.  When  at  last  he  died, 
he  was  buried  with  the  greatest  honors,  and  his  name  stands 
the  highest  of  all  the  Kings  of  Judah,  save  David  alone. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 


THE  CAPTIVITY— NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 


Prevalence  in  Corruption  in  Jerusalem  and  Jndah — Josiali  Raised  Up  to  Stem 
it — Brief  Reigns — Kings  Carried  into  Captivity  at  Babylon — Zedekiah  has 
his  Eyes  Put  Out— Battle  of  Megiddo— Rivalry  of  Babylon  and  Egypt— The 
Prophecy  of  Jeremiah — Discovery  of  the  Bible — The  Old  Faith  a  Dead 
Thing — The  Approach  of  the  Final  Siege  of  Jerusalem — The  Invasion  of 
Nebuchadnezzar — The  Character  of  this  Monarch — Daniel — The  Ruins  of 
Babylon — Nebuchadnezzar's  Insanity. 

[HE  prevailing  corruption  of  morals  in  Jerusalem 
and  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  was  so  great  that  the 
protest  of  even  such  a  King  as  Hezekiah  availed 
but  little  against  it.  The  fate  of  the  land  was  evidently- 
sealed;  and  although  there  was  raised  up  yet  one  more  good 
and  great  King,  the  pioais  Josiah,  to  attempt  a  protest  against 
the  idolatries  and  impieties  of  his  land ;  still  not  even  all  the 
grand  attempts  of  this  excellent  and  devoted  prince,  were 
able  to  make  headway  against  the  strong  stream  of  national 
corruption.  After  Hezekiah  there  were  seven  reigns  before 
the  captivity,  one  of  them,  and  the  most  infamous  of  them  all, 
that  of  Manasseh,  being  long,  in  fact  the  longest  of  all  the 
kings  of  his  nation  (fifty-five  years),  while  the  others  were 
generally  brief  and  inglorious,  those  of  Jehoahaz  and  Jeho- 
iachim  being  but  three  months  each  in  duration.  There  is 
no  need  to  enter  into  the  details  of  these  men's  administra- 
tions; all  of  them  except  Josiah  "did  evil  in  the  sight  of  the. 
Lord ; "  nearly  all  of  them  came  into  conflict  with  the  powers 
on  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates ;  Manasseh  was  carried  into  cap- 
tivity into  Babylon ;  Jehoiakim  was  killed  by  the  King  of 
Babylon;  Jehoiachin  was  carried  into  captivity  by  the  same 


372 


JOSIAH   AN   ALLY   OF   EGYPT. 


monarch;  and  Zedekiali  was  not  only  carried  away  in  like 
manner,  but  his  eyes  were  put  out,  and  his  sons  were  put  to 
death  with  a  refinement  of  oriental  cruelty.  Josiah  alone 
came  to  his  end  in  a  conflict  with  Egypt,  the  land  to  whose 
alliance  and  protection  the  Hebrews  felt  themselves  constantly 
driven,  and  with  which  they  constantly  intrigued.  During  a 
great  campaign  between  the  King  of  Egypt,  Pharaoh-nechez 
and  the  King  of  Assyria,  Josiah  joined  the  latter  against  the 


ANCIENT  PERSIAN  SPEARS  AND  SHIELDS. 


former ;  took  the  field  in  person  ;  attacked  the  Egyptian  army 
just  after  it  had  passed  over  the  plains- of  Philistia  and  Sharon, 
and  was  winding  over  the  Carmel  ridge  and  entering  the 
plain  of  Esdraelon  at  Megiddo.  Here  the  Hebrew  King  re- 
ceived a  mortal  wound,  and  was  carried  back  to  Jerusalem  for 
interment. 

During  all  these  closing  years  we  discover  afresh  what  we 
have  already  noticed,  that  Palestine  was  not  held  in  high  re- 
gard by  the  Kings  of  Assyria,  Babylon  and  Egypt,  so  much 


ROMAN   SLINGER. 
From  Column  of  Antonius, 


ANCIENT    UEAVY    ARilED    WARRIOR. 
From  Hope'i  Costame  of  the  Ancienti. 


^-  c^V/V   v^  --      ^^ 


ANCIENT   CUIRASS. 


PERSIAN    SWORD    OR   ACINACES. 


ANCIENT    CUIRASS. 
(From  Wilkinson.} 


23 


37/i 


WHAT   PALESTINE   WAS   IN   ITSELF. 


© 


O 


for  what  it  was  in  itself,  as  for  what  it  was  as  a  kind  of  natural 
outlying  fortress.     It  was  seen   that  the  possession  of  that 

mountain  wall,  lying  between 
the  plains  of  Mesoj)otamia  and 
the  valley  of  the  Nile,  was  the 
most  secure  defence  of  the  em- 
pire which  might  hold  it ;  and 
hence  that  long  protracted  con- 
test for  its  possession,  which 
was  at  last  crowned  by  the  de- 
cisive act  of  Nebuchadnezzar, 
who  not  only  destroyed  the  city, 
took  away  all  the  treasures  of 
the  temple,  burned  the  temple, 
but  carried  away  into  his  own 
territory  the  entire  population, 
with  the  exception  of  the  com- 
monest agricultural  laborers, 
and  a  little  garrison  of  Jews 
under  a  governor  of  his  own 
appointing.  The  prophecy  of 
Jeremiah  contains  the  most  pa- 
thetic and  interesting  account 
that  has  come  down  to  us,  of 
the  breaking  up  of  the  nation ; 
and  his  book  of  Lamentations 
has  perpetuated  the  sad  and 
wailing  cry  of  that  stern  and 
true  patriot,  after  he  saw  the 
city  sitting  in  her  widowhood, 
desolate  and  ruined. 

As  a  proof  of  the  thoroughly 
demoralized  condition  of  the 
nation  in  those  last  days,  may 
be  cited  the  slight  effect  of  a  startling  discovery  made  in 
Josiah's  time.     While  workmen  were  making  thorough  re- 


i> 


ANCIENT  RECORDS. 


CLOG  ALMANAC. 
'  The  sticks  whereon  thou  writest.' 


876  DISCOVERY   OF   THE   BIBLE. 

pairs  in  the  temple  at  the  King's  command,  in  their  rum- 
magings they  came  across  a  roll  which  seemed  of  consequence 
enough  to  show  to  the  proper  authorities.  It  was  at  once 
carried  to  the  King  by  the  high  priest  and  the  scribe,  and 
proved  to  be  no  less  valuable  a  document  than  the  old  Law  : 
the  Bible  ;  the  only  Bible  that  had  thus  far  been  formed,  the 
Mosaic  Books.  How  profound  was  the  sensation  that  fol- 
lowed this  discovery  may  be  seen  from  the  gesture  and  action 
of  the  King,  who  in  his  fear  and  amazement,  rent  his  clothes. 
How  long  the  Bible  had  been  thus  hidden  we  have  no  means 
of  ascertaining ;  there  is  no  datura  which  suggests  even  an 
inference  as  to  the  time  when  it  passed  out  of  the  knowledge 
of  men. 

But  the  nation  was  thoroughly  degenerate.  The  old  faith 
had  died  out.  The  race  of  prophets  was  almost  extinct ;  the 
persecutions  of  Manasseh  had  removed  almost  all  the  men 
who  had  been  faithful  to  the  ancient  Jehovah  ;  and  the  church 
had  nearly  died  out.  In  such  a  time  as  this,  even  the  most 
thorough  purification  was  necessarily  a  superficial  one ;  and 
nothing  substantial  came  of  .it.  Had  the  people  remained 
true  to  their  own  selves  and  to  the  ideas  which  they  had  in 
trust,  they  might  have  held  their  own ;  nay  more  than  that, 
they  might  have  held  the  balance  of  power  between  Babylonia 
and  Egypt ;  and  in  the  end  dictated,  substantially,  to  both  of 
those  great  nations.  As  it  was  they  succumbed  and  went 
down ;  and  although  their  name  did  not  perish  from  the  earth, 
they  from  this  time  became  a  dependent  and  subjugated 
people. 

The  story  of  the  successive  approaches  of  the  final  siege  of 
Jerusalem  is  briefly  sketched  in  II.  Kings  and  in  II.  Chronicles, 
but  is  more  fully  told  in  Jeremiah.  For  just  as  the  burden 
of  Isaiah  is  the  approaching  invasion  of  Sennacherib  and  his 
army,  so  is  the  burden  of  Jeremiah  the  approaching  invasion 
of  Nebuchadnezzar.  -Step  by  step  the  great  King  of  Babylon 
came  near,  substantially  taking  the  city  over  again,  but  never 
till  the  close  of  the  great  drama,  actually  breaking  down  its 


378 


HORRIBLE   SUFFERINGS   IN   JERUSALEM. 


gates  and  walls,  burning  its  temple  and  its  palaces,  and  uany- 
ing  away  all  its  precious  things.  How  dreadful  was  the  last 
siege  of  eighteen  months'  duration,  can  be  easily  gathered 
from  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah.  Hardly  has  the  history 
of  the  world  witnessed  one  more  fearful ;  one  which  weighed 
more  cruelly  upon  the  princes  and  the  people.  Suffering 
from  hunger  assumed  its  usual  horrible  aspect  dui-ing  a  siege . 


STREET  IN  JERUSALEM. 


children  were  cooked  and  eaten  for  food ;  great  princes  and 
leading  families  were  reduced  to  the  direst  straits  ;  and  women 
who  had  never  known  anything  of  want  or  suffering,  now  felt 
its  presence  in  the  most  dreadful  forms.  The  captivity  was 
prefaced  by  events  which  must  have  burned  themselves  into 
the  national  heart ;  it  was  the  culminating  point  of  an  awful 
list  of  woes  and  perils. 


CHARACTER   OF   NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 


379 


Of  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  King  of  Babylon,  who  brought 
these  evils  upon  the  Jews  we  have  full  accounts  brought  down 
to  us.  We  have  in  the  iirst  place  the  allusions  to  him  in  Kings 
and  in  Chronicles ;  we  have  next,  the  full  details  recorded  in 
Jeremiah,  and  better  still,  we  have  the  full  and  explicit  picture 
given  us  in  the  first  four  chapters  of  Daniel.  No  one  could 
have  been  better  circumstanced  than  was  Daniel  to  judge  the 
character  of  this  great,  superstitious  and  politic  prince ;  for 
he  was  not  only  one  of  the  Jews  who  were  carried  into  cap- 


ANCIENT  ARMOR— PERSIAN  HORSEMAN. 

tivity,  but  while  in  Babylon  he  was  raised  to  a  high  place  of 
trust  in  the  khig's  household,  in  consequence  of  his  rare  skill 
in  the  much  cultivated  art  of  divination.  From  Daniel  we 
learn,  that  though  Nebuchadnezzar  was  not  deficient  in  the 
arts  of  war,  he  was  much,  more  celebrated  for  his  devotion  to 
the  interests  of  peace.  The  question  which  he  is  represented 
by  Daniel  as  putting  to  himself,  "  Is  not  this  great  Babylon 
which  I  have  builded,"  is  made  more  intelligible  to  us  by  the 
numerous  and  striking  remains  which  have  come  down  to  our 


CAEEER   OF   NEBUCHADNEZZAR.  381 

time  from  Nebuchadnezzar's  hand.  The  rviins  of  Babylon 
have  been  recently  discovered  near  the  confluence  of  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  Rivers ;  and  on  four-fifths  of  the 
bricks  which  have  been  found  in  the  place  where  they  were 
originally  laid,  is  found  stamped  the  name  of  Nebuchadnezzar. 
He  made  that  city  the  most  sumptuous  capital  of  his  time. 
Doubtless  it  was  as  splendid  a  city  as  now  exists  even  in  this 
modern  world.  His  parks,  his  palaces,  his  summer  houses,  his 
stately  warehouses,  liis  long  and  imposing  lines  of  streets 
would  eclipse  even  our  London,  Paris  and  New  York.  Nor 
were  his  exploits  confined  to  Babylon  alone.  Nearly  a  hun- 
dred sites  of  cities  in  Babylonia  have  been  examined  by  Sir 
Henry  Rawlinson,  and  in  them  all  the  name  of  Nebtichadnez- 
zar  has  been  found  on  the  larger  share  of  bricks  lying  in  their 
original  position.  He  is  a  man  evidently  worthy  of  all  his 
fame.  During  the  later  years  of  his  reign  there  came  over 
him  a  kind  of  insanity  not  unknown  to  physicians  ancient  and 
modern,  which  made  him  suppose  himself  a  beast,  and  im- 
pelled him  to  take  the  posture  of  an  ox  and  to  suppose  that 
he  must  live  on  the  grass  of  the  field.  He  eventually  recov- 
ered from  his  madness  and  remained  till  his  death  in  the  com- 
plete possession  of  all  his  faculties. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


CONDITION  OF  THE  JEWS  DURING  THE  CAPTIVITT. 


The  Books  of  Daniel,  Ezekiel  and  Esther — The  Grandeur  of  the  Babylonian 
Monarch — Glimpses  of  the  Jewish  People — Their  Slavery — The  Book  of  Es- 
ther in  Special — A  Romantic  History — Why  that  Book  is  Found  in  the  Bible 
— Objections  Considered — Xerxes  the  Great — Esther  Herself — The  Great 
Providence  Displayed  in  the  Whole  History — Salvation  of  the  Jewish  Nation 
— The  Feast  of  Purira  Still  Kept  by- the  Jews — Side  Lights  Thrown  Upon 
the  Jewish  History — Their  Prosperity  in  Babylon — Reluctant  to  Return — 
Cyrus — His  Shrewdness  in  Allowing  the  Jews  to  Go  Back. 

E  get  the  most  of  the  knowledge  which  we  have  of 
the  condition  of  the  Jews  during  the  time'  of  their 
seventy  years  captivity,  from  the  books  of  Daniel, 
Ezekiel  and  Esther.  The  opening  pages  of  Daniel  present  us 
with  a  vivid  picture  of  the  grandeur  and  material  magnifi- 
cence of  the  Babylonian  monarchs,  and  in  Nebuchadnezzar 
and  Belshazzar  we  have  masterly  types  of  the  luxury,  vanity, 
profligacy  and  tyranny  of  oriental  monarchs.  Little  glimpses 
are  given  us  of  the  Jewish  people ;  we  see  that  they  were 
much  broken  up  and  scattered  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
empire ;  that  they  throve  in  trade,  and  acquired  a  certain  de- 
gree of  prosperity  and  contentedness  ;  that  some  of  them,  such 
as  D»aniel  and  Nehemiah  rose  to  exalted  stations ;  and  that  the 
people  differed,  by  common  consent,  from  the  people  who  held 
them  captive.  Their  estate  of  slavery  was  much  lighter  than 
it  had  been  in  Egypt  a  thousand  years  before,  but  it  was  a 
state  of  slavery,  nevertheless.  In  the  book  of  Esther  we  have 
one  of  the  most  graphic  and  glowing  pictures  which  are  to  be 
found  in  the  gallery  of  history.  If  it  were  not  in  the  Bible, 
it  would  be  prized  by  all  scholars  as  one  of  the  finest  and  most 


884  THE   BOOK   OF   ESTHER. 

romantic  things  to  be  found  in  the  world.  Were  it  to  turn 
up  now  in  the  East,  its  discovery  would  be  hailed  as  one  of 
the  greatest  of  our  time.  It  reads  like  a  novel,  for  its  facts 
and  the  manner  in  which  they  dovetail  together,  can  hardly 
be  paralleled  by  the  incidents  of  any  modern  fiction.  All 
children  are  charmed  with  Esther ;  and  so  too  are  all  adults 
who  read  it,  for  it  is  a  wonderful  book.  Had  we  nothing  more 
than  it  and  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-seventh  Psalm  we 
should  not  lack  a  faithful  portraiture  of  the  condition  of  the 
Jews  during  their  long  captivity.  The  book  of  Esther  chimes 
in  with  the  plaintive  strain,  "By  the  rivers  of  Babylon  we 
sat  down  and  wept;"  and  although  the  Hebrew  maiden  at- 
tained the  high  place  which  her  grace  and  beauty  won  for  her, 
yet  even  that  distinguished  honor  was  beset  with  constant 
clouds  and  perils. 

Many  persons  have  wondered  why  the  Book  of  Esther 
should  be  found  in  the  Bible ;  and  the  fact  that  it  does  not 
contain  the  name  of  God  has  often  been  urged  as  a  triumphant 
proof  that  it  cannot  be  considered  a  sacred  book.  And  looked 
at  in  a  superficial  manner,  there  does  seem  to  be  weight  in  the 
objection,  but  viewed  more  carefully  the  book  is  seen  to  fill  a 
really  important  place.  For  although  it  is  a  romantic  story  of 
private  life,  and  details  the  checkered  fortunes,  not  alone  of 
Xerxes  the  Great  (Ahashuerus)  and  one  of  his  chief  princes, 
Haman,  but  also  of  simple  Jewish  slaves,  Mordecai  and  Esther, 
although  its  scene  is  laid  entirely  in  a  heathen  land,  and  in 
cities  which  were  full  of  profligacy,  although  Esther's  advance- 
ment is  that  of  a  beautiful  woman,  prized  in  the  eastern  man- 
ner, for  her  physical  attractions  alone,  and  advanced  to  the 
place  of  a  higher  form  of  concubine  or  lower  form  of  wife  by 
virtue  of  her  attractions  ;  yet  the  play  and  byplay  of  all  these 
characters  fringe  not  on  Esther's  and  Mordecai's  advancement, 
not  on  the  fall  of  Haman  and  his  race,  but  on  the  great  and 
all  over-shadowing  fact  that  the  conspiracy  of  Haman  to  de- 
stroy the  whole  Jewish  race  was  averted  and  came  to  grief. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  wonderful  series  of  incidents  which  is 


PRESERVATION   OF   THE  JEWISH   RACE. 


385 


related  in  that  book,  the  doom  of  the  whole  Hebrew  nation 
had  been  sealed,  and  it  had  perished  from  off  the  earth.  And 
just  as  the  main  value  of  the  book  of  Ruth  doi^s  not  lie  in  its 
picturesque  and  idyllic  delineation  of  the  life  of  that  fair 
Moabitess,  but  in  the  fact  that  she  was  the  grandmother  of 
David,  and  so  the  ancestor  of  our  blessed  Lord,  so  the  book 
of  Esther  has  its  chief  value  and  thus  its  chief  charm  in  .the 
record  which  it  gives  us  of  the  manner  in  which  the  race  from 


REPUTED  TOMB  OF  ESTHER  AND  MORDECAI. 


which  our  Saviour  was  to  spring,  was  saved  from  destruction 
by  the  prompt  intervention  of  a  Jewish  maiden.  We  may 
see  with  all  assurance,  that  had  Esther  not  have  been,  our 
Lord  Jesus  had  not  come. 

All  who  live  where  there  is  a  Jewish  population  know  that 
every  spring-time,  in  the  month  of  IMarch,  a  feast  is  observed  by 
the  Hebrews,  known  as  Purim.  I  have  seen  it  announced  in 
the  daily  papers,  in  the  city  where  I  reside.  And  yet  few  be- 
sides the  Jews  remember  that  that  feast  of  Purim,  is  spoken 


886  DEGRADATION   OF   THE  BABYLONIANS. 

of  in  the  closing  chapters  of  Esther,  and  was  instituted  then 
to  keep  in  perpetual  commemoration  the  delivery  of  the  Jews 
fi'om  the  destruction  planned  by  Haman.  It  is  a  wonderful 
verification  of  that  interesting  book,  and  is  well  adapted  to 
silence  the  doubts  of  those  who  question  the  historical  au- 
thenticity of  the  Scriptures,  that  in  all  lands  the  Jews  still 
commemorate  Esther,  and  the  deliverance  she  wrought.  This 
is  a  fact  which  is  almost  startling  at  first  thought ;  and  yet 
every  Jew  knows  that  this  is  the  case. 

Beside  the  book  of  Esther,  the  books  of  Daniel  and  Eze- 
kiel,  and  some  of  the  Psalms,  especially  the  one  hundred  and 
thirty-seventh,  throw  light  upon  the  condition  of  the  Jewish 
nation  while  they  were  in  their  captivity ;  and  reveal  to  us,  that 
although  theirs  was  indeed  a  state  of  bondage,  yet  that  it  was 
so  lightened  and  mitigated,  that  they  were  hardly  in  a  state 
of  suffering,  or  even  of  positive  ostracism.  They  were  of  com- 
mon Semitic  stock  with  those  who  held  them  in  captivity,  and 
their  language  had  great  resemblances.  That  broad  line  of 
demarcation  which  separated  us  from  the  negroes  during  the 
time  of  their  slavery,  did.  not  enter  into  the  condition  of  the 
Hebrews  during  their  estate  of  bondage,  for  there  was  no  dif- 
ference in  color,  and  whatever  diversity  did  exist  in  respect 
of  social  condition  and  culture,  was  rather  in  favor  of  the 
Jews  than  of  their  captors.  For  the  Babylonians  were  sunk 
in  an  inglorious  effeminacy;  their  whole  tone  was  gone,  and 
they  were  in  the  same  stage  of  softness  and  feebleness  in 
which  the  Romans  were  at  the  time  of  the  Gothic  invasion ; 
whereas  the  Hebrew  stock  was  vigorous  and  full  of  hardihood. 
And  so  we  see  that  the  Jews  lived  rather  as  prosperous  col- 
onists and  traders  and  farmers  than  as  subject  slaves ;  they  ac- 
quired property,  and  gained  prosperity,  so  much  so  indeed, 
that  by  far  the  larger  number  were  unwilling  to  return.  And 
so  when  the  decree  of  Cyrus  was  issued,  empowering  the 
Jews  to  go  back  to  the  homes  of  the  fathers,  the  compara- 
tively small  number  of  those  w^ho  took  advantage  of  the  edict 
is  accounted  for.     That  edict  has  been  supposed  to  have  re- 


888  THE  POLICY  OF   CYRUS. 

suited  solely  from  the  clemency  of  Cyrus;  to  have  been  dic- 
tated simply  by  an  abounding  good  nature,  and  to  have  had 
no  connection  with  public  policy.  My  own  conviction  is,  how- 
ever, that  it  was  quite  as  much  the  dictate  of  wisdom  as  of 
benevolence.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  shrewdly 
planned.  The  Jews  had  been  so  long  resident  in  Babylonia 
that  their  attachment  to  that  country  had  been  secured,  and 
their  old  tendency  to  form  an  alliance  with  Egypt  had  neces- 
sarily come  to  an  end.  The  Babylonians,  meanwhile,  who  had 
conquered  and  were  in  the  possession  of  the  mountain  land 
of  Palestine,  the  natural  fortress  between  the  two  great  rival 
empires  on  the  Euphrates  and  the  Nile,  were  not  disposed  to 
go  up  into  the  hills  of  Judah  and  Benjamin  to  take  possession  ; 
and  so  the  country  was  insecurely  held.  The  band  of  Jews 
which  had  been  left  there  by  Nebuchadnezzar  does  not  appear 
to  have  had  any  effective  hold ;  and  an  act  of  apparent  gen- 
erosity, which  should  make  the  Jews  return  and  keep  their  old 
land,  and  yet  remain  loyal  to  their  conquerors,  was  one  which 
was  dictated  by  profound  political  insight.  And  this  is  what 
Cyrus  did ;  and  what  hi-s  successors  continued  to  do  after  him  ; 
and  endeavoring  to  prevail  on  the  Jews  to  go  up  to  the*  land 
of  their  fathers  and  take  possession,  he  took  what  was  the 
only  sure  and  wise  course  in  the  work  of  holding  Palestine  in 
quiet  and  unresisting  subjection. 


k 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 

THE  RETURN  FROM  BABYLON. 

The  First  Colony  or  Caravan  that  Returned — Their  Course — View  of  Jerusalem 
irom  the  East — A  Scene  of  Desolation — The  Rebuilding  of  the  Temple — 
Hindrances  Put  in  the  Way — The  Work  Sped — The  Book  of  Ezra — Nehe- 
miah  Goes  Up  witli  Another  Colony — Ezra's  Work  of  Reformation — The 
Effect  Felt  to  the  Present  Day— The  Restoration  of  the  Wall— The  People 
had  a  Mind  to  Work — Gross  Evils  Ceased — Nothing  More  Heard  About  a 
King — Synagogue  Worship  Began — Ceasing  of  Prophecy — The  Editing  of 
the  Bible — MalacJii — Restoration  of  the  Sabbath — The  Reform  in  Marriage 
and  the  Abolishment  of  Idolatry. 

HE  first  caravan,  which  returned  in  the  year  535,  B. 
C,  comprised  but  about  fifty  thousand  souls,  a  small 
body  in  comparison  with  the  former  population. 
The  second  caravan,  which  went  back  in  458  B.  C,  under  the 
direction  of  Ezra  was  very  small,  numbering  only  about  six 
thousand,  while  those  who  went  back  with  Nehemiah  a  few 
years  later,  were  still  fewer.  The  richer  Jews  were  not  to  be 
persuaded  to  leave  their  wealth,  and  return  to  the  sterile  and 
desolate  home  of  their  ancestors  ;  the  old  tie  had  been  broken, 
and  only  the  poorer  ones  were  willing  to  go  back.  It  must 
have  been  a  sad  sight  as  that  caravan  of  about  fifty  thousand 
souls  wended  their  way  up  the  valley  of  the  Kedron,  and 
looked  upon  the  remains  of  the  once  proud  and  magnificent 
Jerusalem.  It  is  the  best  way  of  approaching  the  city,  for 
seen  from  the  east,  the  city  lies  above  the  beholder,  and  has 
a  situation  which  is  really  commanding,  whereas  approached 
by  way  of  the  north,  the  south  or  the  west,  it  is  almost 
insignificant,  and  always  disappoints  the  visitor.  But  the 
Jews  came  by  the  road  which  displays  it  to  the  best  advan- 


890  THE  REBUILDING   OF   THE  TEMPLL. 

tage.  At  the  right,  on  the  crest  of  Moriah  lay  the  crumbling 
and  blackened  remains  of  the  temple ;  on  Zion,  at  the  left 
were  the  fni^inents  of  the  massive  city  which  had  stood  there. 
Tlie  wall  wliich  had  girded  the  city  was  a  heaj)  of  ruins,  and 
tlie  strong  gates  were  broken  down.  It  was  a  scene  of  wild 
desolation,  and  must  have  filled  the  hearts  of  the  returning 
company  with  deep  sadness.  They  bore  with  them  the  sacred 
vessels,  five  thousand  four  hundred  in  number,  which  had 
been  taken  from  the  temple  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  had  been 
used  for  purposes  of  heathen  revelry  down  in  Babylon.  No 
doubt  with  the  number  of  returning  Jews  were  many  of  the 
Ten  Tribes,  as  well  as  those  of  Judah  and  Benjamin,  for  the 
whole  race  would  naturally  have  made  common  cause  while 
in  a  foreign  land.  From  this  cause,  there  was  a  partial  res- 
toration of  all  the  tribes ;  at  any  rate,  there  was  a  restoration 
of  representatives  of  all  the  tribes. 

Their  first  great  undertaking  was  the  rebuilding  of  the 
temple.  This  work  was  commenced  at  once,  and  with  great 
spirit.  The  leader  in  this  enterprise  was  Zerubbabel,  and  the 
new  temple,  which  was  about  one-third  larger  than  the  old, 
and  much  less  magnificent,  bore  and  continues  to  bear  the 
name  of  the  original  builder.  Various  hindrances  were  put 
in  the  way  of  its  continuance,  especially  on  the  part  of  the' 
Assyrian  colonists,  who  had  occupied  the  northern  kingdom, 
and  so  the  work  went  slowly  on.  In  fact  it  was  not  com- 
pleted till  after  twenty-one  years,  and  not  even  then  e:^cept- 
ing  from  the  great  and  inspiring  stimulus  which  was  given  to 
the  people  by  two  prophets,  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  whose 
sayings  have  come  down  to  us.  These  noble  and  faithful  men 
tided  the  people  and  the  fickle  Zerubbabel  over  a  hard  place 
in  the  national  history,  and  secured  at  last,  the  completion  of 
the  great  attempt.  The  story  of  its  building  takes  up  a  large 
part  of  the  book  of  Ezra,  and  is  told  there  with  artless  and 
beautiful  simplicity. 

The  next  great  work  which  was  attempted  was  long  after 
this,  in  the  time  of  Nehemiah.     Ezra  records  in  the  early  chap- 


ANCIENT  BOTTLES,    1  'TO   7    GLASS,, 8   TO    11    EARTHENWAEB. 
(From  the  British  Museum  collection.) 


ANCIENT  CUPS.     (Fairbairn). 

1,  lion  Head  Cup. -Sculpture,  Khorsabab.— Bo«a.     2,  Lion  Head  Cup  with  handle-Khorsnbab.— Bo«<i.    3,  OviB-< 

Sculpture,  Kliorsabah.  — Bo«a.    4,  Cup  of  Red  Pottery— Nimroud.—  iynyard.     6,  Painted  Cup  from 

Karamules.— iayard.    6,  7,  Bronze  Cups— Nimroud.— £<-t/uA  Museum, 


ANCIENT  CUPS. — (Fairbairn). 


1,5,  3,  From  Paintings  at  Thebes.— ITJ/fa'HJon.     4,  Porcelain    Cap.— Wi/ki)ison.    B,  Cup  of  Green  Earthenware 

with  lotus  flower,  painted  in  black.— BririjA  Museum.     7,  Cup  of  Wood.— BrilUh  Museum.    8,  Cups 

ot  ATiaLSomte.—BHtUh  Museum,     9,  Saucer  of  Earthenware.— Wj/A.i'ji«)». 


392  THE   RESTORATION   OF  THE   WALL. 

ters  of  his  book  what  took  place  long  before  his  day ;  his  own 
journey  up  to  Palestine  was  more  than  a  hundred  years  after 
the  new  temple  had  been  built.  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  were 
cotemporaries,  and  lived  and  to  a  great  extent  labored  side  by 
side.  Ezra  was  a  priest  and  devoted  his  life  to  the  collecting 
and  editing  of  the  Sacred  Books,  and  to  the  bringing  up  of 
the  morals  of  his  people,  especially  in  the  matter  of  marriage. 
When  his  small  caravan  of  about  six  thousand  souls  had 
reached  Jerusalem,  he  found  that  almost  everything  was  in  a 
bad  way ;  but  the  worst  thing  of  all  was  that  the  people  had 
formed  unrestrained  marriage  connections  with  the  outlying 
heathen  tribes  ;  and  thus  all  kinds  of  evil  were  coming  in.  To 
the  work  of  reformation  Ezra  addressed  himself  with  charac- 
teristic zeal,  and  his  .work  was  signally  prospered.  In  this 
good  work  he  was  ably  seconded  by  Nehemiah,  the  governor 
of  Jerusalem,  a  man  of  the  rarest  and  noblest  character.  And 
so  effectually  did  they  stay  this  old  and  jDestilent  evil,  that  it 
ceased  at  once.  Down  to  that  time  the  Jews  had  had  a  most 
ungracious  notoriety  for  the  readiness  with  which  they  entered 
into  marriage  alliance  with  the  heathen  ;  but  with  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah's*  vigorous  measures,  this  all  ceased,  and  down  to 
the  present  day  the  Jews  are  noted  for  the  purity  of  their 
blood.  Such  a  thing  as  a  marriage  with  a  Gentile  is  now  ex- 
ceedingly rare ;  then  it  was  the  most  common  thing  in  the  world. 
This  is  the  most  strildng  tribute  to  the  commanding  influence 
of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah. 

The  great  act  of  the  latter  was  the  restoration  of  the  wall. 
Having  been  appointed  governor  of  Jerusalem,  he  at  once  set 
himself  to  the  great  work  of  making  the  city  secure.  The 
temple  of  Zerubbabel  occupied  the  place  where  that  of  Solo- 
mon had  stood,  and  it  contained  articles  of  priceless  worth, 
but  it  was  defenceless,  and  the  city  was  at  the  mercy  of  any 
wild  horde  of  savages  which  might  pour  down  from  the  hills 
and  enter  it.  All  sorts  of  hindrances  were  put  in  his  way — 
their  story  is  graphically  told  in  the  book  of  Nehemiah, 
but  all  in  vain.     The  labor  went  vigorously  on,  "  for  the  pec- 


EAST  END  OF  SOUTH  WALL. 

This  massive  wall  supported  the  huge  platform  on  which  the  Temple  rested.    The  Mount  of 

Olives  appears  on  the  right,  crowned  ly  the  Church  (if  the  Ascension. 

From  a  Fhotogrnfili  by  J.  Grit  hum. 


KKFORMS   AMONG   THE   JEWS.  395 

pie  had  a  mind  to  work."  Indeed  such  was  the  energy  with 
which  the  undertaking  was  prosecuted  that  it  was  completed 
in  fifty-two  days,  and  from  that  time  the  city  was  secure.  Ne- 
hemiah  consecrated  the  wall  with  religious  services  of  extra- 
ordinary splendor,  and  the  account  given  by  him  of  the 
processions  which  walked  along  the  top,  past  the  various 
gates  and  towers,  still  remains  the  most  lucid  and  complete 
description  extant,  of  the  ancient  barrier.  The  book  of  Ne- 
hemiah,  like  that  of  Ezra,  is  written  in  a  delightfully  graphic 
style,  and  will  fascinate  any  one  who  reads  it.  The  reforms 
which  Nehemiah  effected,  were  all  of  them  of  a  salutary 
character,  and  left  an  abiding  impress  upon  the  nation. 

After  the  return  from  the  captivity,  certain  of  the  grosser 
forms  of  evil  which  had  done  so  much  to  corrupt  the  Jews,  ut- 
terly ceased.  Whether  from  the  fact  that  only  the  poorer  and 
simpler  classes  returned,  whether  from  the  weight  and  power 
of  their  religious  leaders,  whether  from  the  ideas  which  they 
derived  from  the  people  who  had  held  them  captive, — at  any 
rate  they  were  a  changed  people,  and  the  captivity  marks  a 
crisis  in  their  history.  After  the  return  there  is  nothing  more 
heard  of  a  visible  king ;  the  theocracy  was  restored  in  its  old 
lines,  and  was  stamped  so  deeply  that  it  did  not  again  disap- 
pear. The  fact  became  known  too,  that  God  could  be  wor- 
shiped at  other  places  besides  Moriah;  and  the  synagogues 
which  had  been  built  upon  the  Euphrates,  were  erected  all 
over  Judea.  Men  anticipated  even  the  conversation  of  Jesus 
with  the  woman  of  Samaria,  and  acted  upon  the  truth  devel- 
oped there,  that  God  can  be  worshiped  anywhere.  Hence 
after  the  return,  synagogues  were  common,  and  there  was  no 
longer  the  feeling  that  the  people  must  go  up  to  Jerusalem 
and  Moriah  to  worship.  And  again,  the  new  temple,  being 
simpler,  allowed  a  less  ritualistic  worship  than  had  been  cel- 
ebrated in  Solomon's  edifice;  and  so  held  the  people  better  up 
to  a  spiritual  religion. 

Another  great  event  which  characterized  the  return  from 
the  captivity,  was  the  ceasing  of  prophecy,  and  the  gathering 


396  THE  CHANGE  WROUGHT  BY  EZRA. 

up  of  all  the  sacred  writings  to  take  the  place  of  the  instruc- 
tion which  had  before  been  given  by  living  prophets.  This 
of  course,  was  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  church  of  God ; 
and  since  that  time  the  chief  appeal  of  men  who  have  been 
under  the  dominion  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  religions,  has 
been  to  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  At  just  what  time  Malachi 
lived  we  do  not  know ;  it  would  appear  that  he  was  the  last 
of  the  prophets ;  but  there  is  no  reason  for  believing  that  his 
work  was  subsequent  to  that  of  the  others  who  have  contrib- 
uted their  writings  to  the  Old  Testament.  It  was  one  of  the 
great  acts  of  the  pious  and  devoted  Ezra,  to  gather  together 
the  various  works  of  the  Hebrew  literature,  to  suitably  edit 
them,  and  to  publish  them  to  his  people  as  the  Word  of  God ; 
and  the  work  which  he  did  has  been  honored  down  to  our 
day,  and  remains,  unquestionably  unchanged,  in  the  form 
which  he  gave  to  it. 

Another  great  change  which  was  brought  in  by  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  was  the  bringing  back  of  the  Sabbath  to  that  hal- 
lowed regard  which  it  had  long  lost  in  the  eye  of  the  people. 
In  the  work  of  Nehemiah  this  is  especially  emphasized ;  and 
it  is  clear  that  the  day  was  by  him  appointed  as  worthy  of  a 
solemn  observance  not  unlike  that  which  was  brought  into 
vogue  by  the  fathers  of  New  England. 

And  the  last  great  reform  which  was  effected  was  the  utter 
abolishment  of  idolatry.  That  infamous  and  deadly  custom 
of  worshiping  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator  ceased  with 
the  return  from  Babylonia,  and  we  see  not  the  slightest 
tendency  to  revive  it  again.  True  other  great  moral  evils 
appeared  in  the  Jewish  nation,  but  they  were  of  a  different 
type  altogether  from,  those  which  had  been  experienced  be- 
fore, but  that  great  sin  of  idolatry  which  had  come  in  with 
Solomon  and  had  culminated  in  Manasseh,  was  known  no 
more  in  the  land  of  Israel. 


ttUJ  J!  I   II1W4U!P»*" 


CHAPTER  XXXn. 

PALESTINE  AFTER  THE  CAPTIVITY, 

BY   REV.  G.   S.   DREW,  AUTHOR   OF   "SCRIPTURE    LANDS." 

Limitation  of  the  Cliurch  Land  of  tlie  Hebrews  to  the  Ilill-country  Aroand 
Jerusalenf — New  and  Large  Relations — Great  Extent  of  tlie  New  Empire — 
By  Whom  it  had  bten  Conquered — The  Policy  of  Cyrus — Egypt  the  Ground- 
work of  our  Conceptions — Resemblances  between  the  Ruins  of  Babylon  and 
those  of  Egypt — Condition  of  Palestine  at  this  Time — The  Character  of  the 
Men  who  Returned  from  Babylon — What  Jerusalem  was  still  to  the  Jews, — 
The  Work  of  Nehemiah  told  in  Greater  Detail — The  Men  who  Followed 
Nehemiah  and  Their  Work. 

|ONG  before  the  period  which  we  reached  in  the 
close  of  the  last  chapter,  the  central  Church  Land 
of  the  Hebrews  was  limited  to  the  hill-country 
around  Jerusalem  ;  nor  through  th€  long  course  of  time  which 
is  yet  before  us,  did  it  ever  pass  far  beyond  that  limit.  Now, 
however,  it  comes  forward  in  important  relations  with  the  re- 
gions lying  on  either  side  of  it ;  and  first  with  the  great  king- 
dom on  the  east,  of  which,  indeed,  at  this  time,  it  formed  part 
of  the  western  border  province.  From  our  present  point  of 
view  we  must  regard  it  in  this  character,  and  estimate  its 
place  in  that  vast  territory  which  stretched  in  one  direction 
from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  borders  of  Hindostan,  and,  in 
another  from  the  Caucasus  to  the  Indian  Sea — the  dominion 
of  Cjrrus  and  his  successors. 

The  extent  of  this  was  many  times  greater  than  the  most 
considerable  of  the  great  empires  which  had  preceded  it. 
Indeed,  all  the  largest  of  these  came  to  be  included  as  its 
provinces  within  its  limits.  It  had  been  conquered  by  the 
first  outbursts  of  the  energy  of  that  upper  race  which  has 


THE   HILLS   ABOUT   JERUSALEM.  899 

ever  since  maintained  its  supremacy  in  the  movements  of  hu- 
man history.  Of  the  Arians  who  had  gone  eastward  in  the 
earHest  migrations  from  the  primeval  settlements,  the  native 
vigor  of  some  had  been  severely  trained  in  the  hill-country 
of  Media  and  Persia.  Their  power  had  enabled  them  gradu- 
ally to  subjugate  to  their  rule  all  the  inferior  races  who  had 
been  previously  established  on  that  territory.  And,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  they  had  at  length  come  down  westward, 
in  an  irresistible  iiTuption  upon  the  communities  of  the  Meso- 
potamian  plain ;  and  then,  with  the  advantages  and  helps  de- 
rived from  subjugating  them,  had  spread  themselves  over  the 
vast  surface  which  has  been  just  indicated,  holding  together 
in  one  empire,  by  marvelous  valor  and  policy,  kingdoms  which 
had  separately  been  most  remarkal)le  in  respect  of  their  pop- 
ulation, not  less  than  of  their  wealth  and  their  resources. 

The  hill-country  centered,  around  Jerusalem,  formed  part 
of  the  western  border  province  of  their  vast  territory.  As  a 
small  group  of  hills  in  an  extreme  corner  of  his  dominions, 
the  great  monarch  at  Susa  thought  of  it,  though  he  would 
never,  on  account  of  its  peculiar  position  on  the  outskirts  of 
his  empire,  regard  it  with  indifference.  He  would  look  upon 
that  mountain  block  as  an  outpost,  or  fortress,  which  might 
be  used  for  the  defence  of  his  territory  on  that  side  against  an 
attack  on  the  part  of  Egypt,  or  which  might  serve  as  an  ad- 
vanced station  in  any  meditated  invasion  of  that  country.  The 
strength  and  fidelity  of  those  who  guarded  such  a  position 
was  evidently  of  great  moment ;  and  its  security  must  often 
have  been  anxiously  debated  in  the  Persian  councils.  That 
it  should  be  occupied  by  a  few  colonists,  or  by  govern- 
ments liable  to  be  tampered  with  by  Egj'^ptian  influence,  was 
to  endanger  the  security  of  the  whole  empire.  Cyrus  knew 
at  the  same  time  that  the  Hebrews  in  his  own  kingdom,  and 
those  dispersed  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  esj^ecially  in  Egypt 
itself,  fixed  their  eyes  on  the  ancient  city  as  the  guardian  of 
a  divine  deposit,  and  of  their  most  treasured  hopes  for  the 
future  of  their  people.     So  long  as  they  held  Jerusalem,  they 


400  POLICY  OF   CYRUS. 

believed  themselves  to  have  the  pledge  of  the  fulfilment  of 
that  future  destiny  of  greatness  which  had  never  been  lost 
sight  of.  Marked  and  distinguished  as  they  were,  in  all  their 
settlements,  from  the  people  around  them,  and  especially  from 
their  fellow  captives,  in  nothing  were  they  more  so  than  in 
the  mysterious  reverence,  the  strength-inspiring  anticipations, 
and  the  kindling  memories,  with  which  they  looked  from  all 
sides  to  the  mountains  and  secluded  glens  and  valleys  of  their 
fatherland,  and  especially  to  the  city  of  their  great  king,  and 
the  hill  whereon  his  son,  Solomon  the  Magnificent,  had  erected 
the  temple,  in  comparison  with  which  how  despicable  appeared 
the  idol  shrines  that  were  around  them  in  Nineveh  and  Baby- 
lon and  in  the  cities  of  the  Nile. 

It  may  have  been  in  partial  sympathy  with  their  feelings, 
as  it  certainly  was  in  the  fulfilment  of  an  obvious  policy,  that 
Cyrus  issued  his  decree  that  that  cluster  of  distant  hills,  that 
fortress  block  in  the  remote  corner  of  his  dominions,  should 
be  occupied  by  any  of  the  prosperous,  able  men  then  living  in 
the  Babylonian  colonies  and  settlements  who  were  willing  to 
go  there  for  that  purpose.  "Whosoever  among  you  is  will- 
ing," he  said,  "let  him  go  up  to  Jerusalem,  which  is  in  Ju- 
dah."  The  position  which  they  were  invited  or  summoned  to 
occupy  was  the  ancient  city,  and  the  hill-country  in  its  neigh- 
borhood. The  northern  provinces — all  the  rich  and  beautiful 
country  that  had  been  included  in  Samaria — were  already 
covered  with  colonies  ;  and  the  decree  of  Cyrus  did  not  med- 
itate, or  allude  to,  their  displacement.  It  was  only  the  bare, 
ungenial  territory  that  l^y  between  this  and  the  fertile  vales 
around  Hebron,  also  occupied  upon  the  south,  that  was  con- 
templated in  the  proclamation.  This  must  be  distinctly  borne 
in  mind  when,  in  order  to  understand  the  spirit  in  which  the 
decree  was  received,  we  transfer  ourselves  to  the  provinces 
around  Babylon,  and  picture,  in  comparison  with  their  circum- 
stances there,  the  position  which  the  Hebrews  were  invited  to 
occupy. 

In  doing  this  we  shall  be  helped,  if  we  take  Egypt  as  the 


POLICY   OF   CYRUS.  401 

groundwork  cf  our  conceptions.  But  its  level  area  must  be 
greatly  extended ;  and  we  must  bear  in  mind  that,  in  respect 
of  soil  and  climate,  nature  has  dealt  more  parsimoniously 
with  the  vaster  plains  of  Babylon  than  with  those  on  the 
Delta,  and  in  the  Nile' valley.  Still,  in  theu'  main  features, 
the  resemblance  between  the  two  countries  is  very  striking ; 
and  this  would  be  at  once  recollected  by  many  of  the  earlier 
exiles  to  whom  Egypt  was  familiar.  The  ground  was  marked 
and  covered  by  works  of  the  same  race.  The  Hamitic  mind 
and  character  were  expressed  in  both  countries,  by  the  same 
colossal  works.  In  its  temples  and  sculptures,  and  in  its  mon- 
umental efiigies  and  decorations,  Egypt,  in  fact,  on  a  larger, 
severer  scale,  was  reproduced  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates ;  and  all  the  appliances  of  civilization  and  luxury 
were  known  there  that  were  known  in  the  cities  that  lined  the 
Nile.  When  Cyrus  issued  his  decree,  the  Hebrew  exiles  were 
at  home  in  their  new  settlements ;  their  ancestors  for  two  gen^ 
erations  backward  had  been  there  before  them  ;  and  the  native 
energy  of  their  race  had  manifested  itself  in  this  new  position. 
Protected,  and  in  some  instances  favored,  by  their  new  lords, 
they  had  made  for  themselves  homes,  and  acquked  large  pos- 
sessions, in  theii"  new  abodes.  They  were  masters  of  many 
arts  which  they  had  soon  learned  to  exercise  profitably  to 
themselves,  as  well  as  advantageously  to  those  who,  in  per- 
sonal capacity  and  vigor,  were  so  greatly  their  inferiors. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  which  they  were  invited  by 
the  decree  of  Cyrus  to  exchange  for  the  precarious  and  diffi- 
cult position  of  colonists  on  the  hill  of  Zion,  bare  of  resources 
as  it  was,  and  covered  with  little  else  than  ruins,  as  well  as 
exposed  to  the  jealousy  of  the  adjacent  tribes,  and  to  attacks 
from  the  neighboring  kingdom  of  Egypt.  An  accumulation 
of  difficulties  had  to  be  overcome  by  those  who  accepted  the 
invitation  or  summons  ;  and,  after  all,  what  would  they  be  but 
the  guards  of  an  outpost  of  the  conqueror  ?  Moreover,  there 
was  a  long,  wearisome  journey  to  be  encountered  from  their 
settlements  on  the  Chaldean  lowlands  to  Jerusalem.     Hence 


THE  RETIRING   CARAVAN.  403 

it  came  to  pass  that,  in  comparison  with  the  whole  number  of 
the  exiles,  but  few  were  induced  to  undertake  the  enterprise. 
Many  gave  freely  of  their  wealth  in  furtherance  of  it ;  but 
only  a  small  number  oomparatively  could  be  induced  to  under- 
take, in  the  spirit  of  the  founder  of  the  nation,  the  long  and 
perilous  journey  over  the  great  desert,  which,  after  all,  they 
would  say,  only  led  to  a  toilsome  and  difficult,  and,  as  some 
might  affirm,  a  hopeless  undertaldng. 

In  comparison  with  the  extent  of  even  that  part  of  the 
nation  which  was  settled  in  Babylon,  it  was,  accordingly,  only 
a  small  caravan  which,  under  the  leadership  of  Zerubbabel, 
now  comes  in  view,  along  the  old  route  across  the  Euphrates, 
by  the  palm-groves  of  Tadmor,  and  across  the  desert  which 
thence  stretches'  to  Damascus  ;  and  yet  how  large  in  compari- 
son with  that  of  Abraham,  in  whose  steps  they  were  follow- 
ing !  Fifty  thousand  individuals,  with  their  beasts  of  burden, 
formed  such  a  company  that  some  months  were  necessarily 
consumed  in  the  journey,  as  well  as  in  the  preparation  for  it, 
which  also  would  occupy  no  small  time,  considering  not  only 
their  numbers,  but  the  value  of  the  treasure  they  carried  with 
them,  as  well  as  their  insecurity  from  the  marauding  tribes 
upon  the  road,  and  the  jealousy  with  which  their  expedition 
was  regarded.  One  would  like  to  know  the  route  by  which 
they  at  length  approached  Jerusalem.  Did  they  venture  into 
the  hill-territory  of  Palestine,  and  come  down  through  the 
rich  midland  provinces,  keeping  throughout  on  the  track  of 
theu-  great  ancestor  ?  Or  did  they,  as  seems  more  possible, 
take  the  more  cautious  path  through  the  old  Gilead  provinces 
of  Manasseh  and  Gad,  crossing  the  Jordan  by  the  fords  o^ 
Jericho^  and  so  make  their  way  up  the  mountain  paths  that 
conducted  them  across  the  slopes  of  Olivet,  and  gave  them 
the  first  view  of  the  now  ruined  city,  from  the  east  ?  This 
might  be  preferred  as  the  securer  road ;  it  would,  besides, 
save  them  much  suffering  and  humiliation  that  would  be 
almost  intolerable,  as  they  saw  the  best  part  of  the  country 
that  should  have  been  their  own  free  possession,  and  their 


THE   OTHER   NEIGHBORS.  405. 

children's  inalienable  heritage,  in  the  hands  of  an  oppressive, 
an  ignoble,  and  idolatrous  people,  who  were  there  polluting, 
with  the  rites  of  a  degrading  superstition,  structures  and  sites 
that  had  been  associated  with  their  most  hallowed  recollec- 
tions. 

.  For  this  was  now  the  condition  of  the  country.  The  prov- 
inces adjacent  to  Jerusalem  on  the  north  were  in  possession 
of  communities,  which,  if  not  perfectly  heathen,  had  among 
them  only  a  few  remnants  of  the  Hebrew  faith  superstitiously 
preserved  ;  while,  in  the  south,  the  chief  towns  of  Judea,  and 
the  most  desirable  provinces  of  the  Jewish  kingdom,  were  in 
the  hands  of  the  Idumeans.  So  that  those  who  came  in  the 
expedition  found  themselves  confined  to  the  bare,  hilly  coun- 
try, extending  only  a  few  miles  round,  of  which  Jerusalem 
was  the  centre.  They  found  it  occupied  only  by  the  strag- 
gling remnants  of  the  last  deportation,  or  perhaps  by  a  few 
pilgrims  who  were  hovering  in  reverent,  lingering  affection, 
around  the  old  sites  of  Hebrew  sacredness  and  glory.  The 
hills  of  Jerusalem  itself  were  only  covered  with  shattered, 
crumbling  ruins,  that  were  blackened  by  the  conflagration 
which  was  kindled  in  the  last  capture  and  destruction  of  the 
city.  Under  these  circumstances  they  entered  on  the  toil, 
and  the  sacrifices,  to  which  they  had  pledged  themselves. 
The  building  up  of  the  temple  now  in  ruins,  and  the  re-estab- 
lishment there  of  Jehovah's  worship  in  exact  accordance  with 
the  prescriptions  of  the  Mosaic  ritual,  the  formation  in  this 
manner  of  a  centre  around  which  they  might  be  faithfully 
and  energetically  combined — was  the  main  object  of  the  de- 
cree of  Cyrus,  and  of  the  contributions  which  he  himself,  as 
well  as  the  Jews  remaining  in  Babylon,  liad  made  to  these 
treasures.  But  the  work,  notwithstanding  the  large  assist- 
ance they  received  in  it,  was,  on  account  of  the  circumstances 
just  named,  and  because  of  their  great  distance  from  the  pro- 
tecting power,  of  enormous  difficulty,  and  was  beset  with 
terrible  discouragements. 

This  should  be  distinctly  borne  in  mind,  in  order  to  conceive 


406  DISPEKSION   OF   THE  JEWS. 

the  struggle  of  the  devoted  men  who  undertook  it.  No  doubt 
they  were — indeed,  they  must  have  been — the  chosen  men  of 
the  Eastern  colony,  distinguished  from  all  their  compatriots 
by  their  vigor,  and  zeal,  and  high  principle.  Others,  of  simi- 
lar character,  and  who  sj'mpathized  with  their  purposes,  would 
come  from  other  countries  of  "  the  dispersion  " — for  the  Jews 
were  already  found  in  every  quarter  of  the  world.  Their  de- 
portation eastward  had  commenced  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  before  the  removal  of  the  last  company  under  Nebuchad- 
nezzar into  Babylon.  There  are  traces,  besides,  of  migrations 
into  Egypt  before  that  which  followed  the  assassination  of 
the  Persian  satrap.  Then,  in  addition  to  their  Babylonian  and 
Egyptian  settlements,  many  had  been  carried  westwards,  as 
well  as  still  farther  to  the  east  and  south,  by  those  Tyrian  and 
Idumean  slave  merchants  who  are  so  indignantly  rebuked  by 
the  prophet  for  the  cruel  injury  thus  inflicted  on  the  captives 
that  had  been  taken  in  the  course  of  the  border  warfare  which 
was  so  incessantly  occurring.  At  this  period,  therefore,  at 
the  close  of  the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  they  were  already 
widely  scattered  over  the  inhabited  world.  The  Jew  might 
have  been  found  everywhere — in  the  numerous  cities,  and 
over  the  vast  plains  of  Western  Asia,  laboring  in  the  fields 
and  mines,  and  especially  on  the  vast  erections  now  going 
forward  there,  as  again  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  in  the  Greek 
colonial  towns  of  the  Mediterranean,  in  Athens  and  Sparta, 
in  the  Carthaginian  settlements  of  Spain  and  Africa.  In  all 
these  places  he  was  seen,  and  everywhere  he  was  looking  to 
the  very  mountain  block  on  which  his  enterprising  country- 
men were  then  laboring,  as  the  central  object  of  his  hopes 
and  veneration. 

The  Jews  would  naturally  look  to  it  as  having  this  impor- 
tance— the  "hill  of  Zion"  was  still  to  them  "  a  fair  place,  the 
joy  of  the  whole  earth."  And  it  was  partly  in  consequence 
of  his  sympathy  with  these  feelings,  as  well  as  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  an  obvious  policy,  that  Cyrus  had  helped  them  in 
their  efforts  to  'restore  it.     This  was  not  the  case  with  his 


THE  NEW  BUILDINGS   AT   JERUSALEM.  407 

successors.  They  did  not  regard  the  Hebrews  with  his  feel- 
ings ;  and,  in  pursuit  of  other  objects,  they  overlooked  the 
local  importance  of  this  corner  of  their  dominions.  Hence 
the  exposure  of  the  enterprising  men  at  Jerusalem  to  the 
vexatious  annoyances  which  they  suffered  from  the  adjacent 
tribes  and  colonists.  In  that  position,  too,  they  would  feel, 
in  its  full  severity,  the  consequences  of  a  severe  blight  which 
fell  on  the  scanty  crops  of  the  contracted  territory  where  they 
were  settled.  Their  position,  moreover,  within  a  day's  journey 
of  the  passes  from  the  coast,  made  them  liable,  fitted  as  they 
were  for  effective  military  service,  to  be  drafted  off  into  the  ar- 
mies which  now  passed  to  and  fro  in  that  old  route,  on  account 
of  the  Egyptian  wars  which  were  then  being  waged  by  their 
Persian  lord.  Discouraged  by  all  these  circumstances,  they 
were  continually  tempted  to  renounce  their  labors  ;  and  a  long 
period  elapsed  before  the  temple  was  finished,  and  before  the 
sacrifices  were  offered  up  in  it.  And  when  this  was  done,  the 
city  was  yet  exposed  on  all  sides  ;  the  walls  were  broken  lines 
of  ruins  ;  the  aqueducts  were  shattered  ;  the  most  sacred  sep- 
ulchres were  wasted  and  defaced,  and  strewed  with  the  frag- 
ments of  the  gates  and  buildings  that  were  cast  down  on  all 
sides.  Except  in  the  narrow  spaces  cleared  by  the  few  occu- 
pants of  the  city,  it  was  nothing  but  a  shapeless  pile  of  blocks, 
of  stones,  and  columns  overthrown,  and  blackened  by  the  con- 
flagration with  which  their  enemies  destroyed  it;  so  that 
"  All  who  passed  by  still  asked.  Is  this  the  city  that  men  call 
perfection,  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth?" 

Such  was  the  state  in  which  the  second  expedition  under 
Ezra  found  Jerusalem,  when  he  "sat  down  astonied"  among 
the  ruins.  The  temple,  and  a  few  private  dwellings,  were  all 
the  fruits  of  eighty  years  of  effort.  So  Nehemiah  heard,  and 
mourned  as  he  heard,  and  he  determined  to  go  and  devote 
himself  to  the  great  enterprise  of  lifting  up  the  daughter  of 
Zion  from  her  humiliation,  and  advancing  the  high  and  mo- 
mentous destination  which  he  believed  she  was  appointed  to 

accomplish.    And  now  we  see  him  carrying  forward,  upon  that 
2iO 


408  THE   NEW   BUILDINGS   AT  JERUSALEM. 

narrow  and  secluded  spot,  one  of  the  noblest  works  ever  ac- 
complislied  by  one  man  in  the  annals  of  the  Jews  or  of  the 
world.  Three  days  were  enough  for  repose  and  friendly  greet- 
ings; and  then,  unobserved^  in  the  late  night,  he  went  with  a 
few  companions  along  the  course  of  the  city  walls,  stumbling 
over  heaps  of  rubbish,  down  to  the  southern  extremity,  of  the 
Kedron  valley,  where  the  ruined  outlines  of  the  city,  clear 
and  silvery  in  the  moonlight,  rose  high  above  him.*  In  ear- 
nest consultation  he  there  laid  the  plans  which  months  of  toil, 
of  brave  patience,  and  strenuous  effort,  were  needful  to  ac- 
complish. 

Now  all  around  we  see  innumerable  multitudes,  in  organized 
activity,  hoisting  up  tlie  huge  blocks,  cleansing  the  cornices 
and  pillars  from  the  blackened  traces  of  the  conflagration ; 
working  with  all  the  vigor  of  their  race  in  restoring  the 
breaches  and  devastations  of  more  than  150  years,  and  over 
all  one  energetic  governing  mind,  animating  them  by  his  own 
example  of  unstinting  self-devotion.  They  who  came  up 
westward,  across  the  ridge  of  Olivet,  would  have  in  one  view 
this  boundless,  unresting  activity  before  them,  and  their  jealous 
enemies — who  at  first  scorned  and  mocked  their  efforts  to  raise 
order,  and  restore  the  city  out  of  that  wide  mass  of  ruin  and 
confusion,  knowing  nothing  of  the  jDlan  of  that  irresistible 
forethought  and  perseverance  which  governed  all  their  efforts 
— soon  changed  their  tone,  when  they  saw  the  progress  of 
the  work,  which  then,  by  craft  and  violent  outrage,  they  en- 
deavored to  impede.  But  courage,  as  well  as  industry,  char- 
acterized that  busy  multitude  :  these  workmen  were  such  that, 
while  they  handled  the  trowel  and  mallet,  they  could  gird  on 
the  sword,  and  introduce  the  discipline  of  a  camp  into  their 

*  "  I  went  out  by  night,  ^  .  .  and  viewed  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  which  were 
broken  down,  and  the  gates  thereof  were  consumed  with  fire.  Then  went  I  on 
to  the  gate  of  the  fountain  and  the  King's  Pool  (the  pool  of  Siloah,  which  was 
at  the  end  of  Tyropajon),  but  there  was  no  place  for  the  beast  that  was  under 
me  to  pass  {i.  e.  on  account  of  the  heaped  ruins).  Then  went  I  up  in  the  night  by 
the  brook  (the  Kedron  valley),  and  viewed  the  eastern  wall,  and  turned  back,  and 
-entered  by  the  gate  of  the  valley  (in  Tyropteon),  and  so  returned."— Neh.  ii.  13-15. 


JERUSALEM  AGAIN   WALLED.  409 

workyards.*  Nor  was  Neheraiah  to  be  either  daunted  or 
duped  by  the  adversaries  who  opposed  him.  Irresistibly  the 
work  went  forward  ;  the  old  blocks  that  Solomon's  Phoenician 
artisans  had  chiselled,  were  heaved  up  again  into  their  places  ; 
the  ancient  towers,  in  their  squared  massiveness  rose  up  once 
more  ;  the  doors  were  hung,  and  the  beams  and  locks  fastened 
to  enclose  the  city.  Once  again  Jerusalem  was  girt  round, 
and  enclosed  on  all  sides  as  a  fenced  hight,  strong  and  com- 
pacted within  itself,  as  in  the  olden  time.  In  all  the  manifes- 
tations of  energy  and  brave  endeavor  which  the  old  city  had 
witnessed,  there  never  was  one  more  glorious  than  this  of  Ne- 
hemiah  and  liis  workmen.  The  city,  being  thus  secured,  was 
now  also  inhabited  by  those  who  voluntarily  offered  themselves 
to  people  and  to  guard  it.  And  now  it  was  regarded  as  their 
metropolis  by  the  men,  numbering  nine  times  its  own  popula- 
tion, who  were  dispersed  over  the  old  ancestral  sites  from 
Bethel  as  far  as  Beersheba. 

Thus,  except  in  the  one  particular  of  their  avowed  subjec- 
tion, under  which,  however,  they  seem  to  have  been  compara- 
tively at  ease,  they  were  restored  into  circumstances  nearly 
identical  with  those  of  the  nation  under  Hezekiah.  Many  of 
the  most  unhkely  of  Isaiah's  prophecies  were  already  fulfilled 
in  Nehemiah's  time ;  and  now,  as  he  looked  forward,  with  the 
onward  gaze  and  forethought  of  one  so  large-minded  as  he, 
the  restorer  of  his  j)eople,  was,  would  he  not  ask,  if  they  might 
not  yet  assert  an  absolute  independence ;  and,  reinforced  by 
the  arrival  of  their  powerful  and  wealthy  brethren  from  all 
quarters  of  the  world,  stand  forward  again  as  the  people  of 
Jehovah,  and  after  all,  accomplish  the  high  purposes  for  which 
he  had  ordained  them? 

*"They  which  builded  on  the  walls  and  they  that  bare  burdens,  with  those 
that  laded,  every  one  with  one  of  his  hands  wrought  in  the  work,  and  with  the 

other  hand  held  a  weapon Every  one  had  his  sword  girded  by  his  side, 

and  so  builded.     And  he  that  sounded  the  trumpet  was  by  me.     And  I  said^ 

The  work  is  great  and  large,  and  we  are  separated  upon  the  wall,  one 

far  from  another.  In  what  place,  therefore,  ye  hear  the  sound  of  the  trumpet, 
resort  ye  thither  unto  us ;  our  God  shall  fight  for  us.  So  we  labored  in  the 
work."— Neh.  iv.  17-21.' 


410  HIGH  EXPECTATIONS. 

There  were  reasons  for  such  expectations,  and  the  pat- 
riotic, high-minded  men,  who  followed  Nehemiah,  and  who 
were  possessed,  as  he  was,  with  a  sense  of  the  world- 
wide destiny  of  Israel,  and  of  its  divinel}''  appointed  work 
for  mankind,  would  retain  his  hope.  Yet  they  were  often 
tempted  to  relinquish  it,  and  especially  on  account  of  the 
perils  they  were  involved  in  through  the  armed  expeditions, 
whose  march  along  the  old  road  towards  Egypt  and  from 
it,  they  could  almost  witness  as  they  looked  from  their 
mountain  hights.  Their  anticipations,  however,  would  re- 
vive when  tidings  of  the  utter,  and  it  proved  the  final,  sub- 
jugation of  that  country  reached  them.  Now  the  whole 
eastern  world  was  subject  to  the  dominion  of  their  sovereign  ; 
and  they  stood  in  the  center  of  his  vast  territory,  having 
living  connections  with  every  part  of  it.*  The  head  of 
silver,  in  Daniel's  prophecies ;  the  ram,  with  his  two  horns, 
was  paramount.  Might  they  not  form  "  the  belly  and  thigh 
of  brass,"  the  conquering  goat,  and  overthrow  this  empire, 
with  which  their  own  relations  were  closer  and  more  uni- 
versal, than  that  of  the  victorious  race  under  which  they 
were  in  subjection? 

This  conjecture  will  not  seem  extravagant,  if  now,  taking 
our  station  on  the  settlements  where  they  were  at  this  time 
standing  more  firmly  than  ever,  we  consider  them  in  rela- 
tion to  the  great  empire,  of  which  they  formed  a  part — or,  at  all 
events,  it  will  guide  and  inform  us  in  the  survey.  For  what 
was  their  real  position  ?  This  narrow,  mountainous  province 
of  theirs — of  which,  as  we  have  said,  their  great  ruler,  if  he 
ever  thought  of  it  separately,  would  think  only  as  a  cluster  of 
hill  forts,  occupied  by  a  stern,  intolerant  people,  who  might 

*For  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Persians  were  now  supreme  on  the 
Mediterranean.  "Maritime  commerce  had  much  greater  facilities  under  the 
Persians  than  under  the  Egyptian  kings,  and  the  sea  was  less  infested  by  pi- 
rates."— Niebuhr,  Ancient  History,  vol  i.  p.  813.  Now,  accordingly,  the  dwellers 
in  Jerusalem,  "  set  in  the  midst  of  the  nations  and  countries  round  about  her," 
had  means  of  communication  with  the  whole  world  which  they  had  never  poa- 
seased  before. 


RELATION  OF  PALESTINE  TO   EGYPT.  411 

serve  the  purpose  of  a  strong  garrison  against  the  wandering 
marauders  of  the  desert,  or  as  the  keepers  of  a  citadel  in  case 
of  a  revolt — this  chain  of  Judean  hills,  thus  occupied,  was, 
in  fact,  the  nucleus,  the  beloved  and  venerated  center  of  a 
race  of  whom  he  would  now  find  members  in  every  province  of 
the  empire.  Their  numbers  and  power,  in  the  old  settlements 
beyond  the  Euphrates,  are  well  known ;  and  to  that  land  they 
had  ancestral  bonds.  The  original  founder  of  their  nation 
had  come  out  from  thence.  On  the  other  side,  upon  the  south, 
they  were  almost  as  numerous  in  Egypt,  and  with  that  coun- 
try also  they  were  connected  by  historic  ties.  Their  ancestors 
had  held  estates  in  it.  One  of  its  most  illustrious  benefac- 
tors had  been  their  countryman.  Moreover,  prophecy  clearly 
marked  out  a  future  and  most  momentous  connection  between 
the  Hebrew  and  Egyptian  destinies.  Thus,  not  in  Palestine 
alone,  but  over  the  whole  range  of  the  universal  empire,  they 
had  not  only  a  station,  but  a  property,  besides.  Then,  again, 
a  property  in  the  future,  as  well  as  in  the  past,  was  claimed 
for  them  by  the  inspired  seers,  who  had  implicated  Assyria 
as  well  as  Egypt  in  their  after  fortunes.*  ^1  or  were  Asia,  and 
Egypt,  with  its  bordering  lands,  only  in  this  close  connection 
with  the  Judean  hights.  Europe  had  already  received,  in 
freights  of  captives,  large  communities  of  Hebrews  within  its 
limits. f  These  speculators,  whom  we  have  imagined  on  Mount 
Zion,  might,  therefore,  add, — "  In  the  event  of  any  rising,  and 
if  on  this  central  ground  we  ever  raise  our  sceptre  aloft  above 

*"  The  Egyptians  shall  serve  with  the  Assyrians.  In  that  day  Israel  shall  be 
the  third  with  Egypt  and  with  Assyria,  a  blessing  in  the  midst  of  the  land  :  whom 
the  Lord  of  Hosts  shall  bless,  saying,  Blessed  be  Egypt  my  people,  and  Assyria 
the  work  of  my  hands,  and  Israel  mine  inheritance."— ^Isa.  xix.  23-25. 

t"0  Tyre  and  Sidon,  ...  ye  have  sold  the  children  of  Judah  and  the  chil- 
dren of  Jerusalem  unto  the  Javanites,  that  ye  might  remove  them  far  from  their 
border." — Joel  iii.  6.  Comp.  Ezek.  xxvii.  13.  An  extensive  slave  trade  had 
been  carried  on  long  before  the  Captivity  both  by  tlie  Phoenicians  and  Greeks. — 
Kenrick's  Phcenicia,  205,  271.  Delos  was  their  great  slave  mart;  and  thence, 
probably,  the  Jewish  captives  spoken  of  by  the  prophet  had  been  sent  in  large 
numbers  into  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  is  said  that  as  many  as  ten  thousand 
slaves  were  sold  in  Delos  in  one  day. 


412 


ALEXANDER  S   SUCCESSES. 


the  nations,  the  resources  of  the  West  are  also  at  our  com- 
mand." Over  and  above  all  this,  they  knew  themselves  to  be 
at  least  a  match,  in  energy  and  prowess,  with-any  of  the  races 
they  had  been  brought  in  contact  with,  the  Grecian  not  ex- 
cepted ;  and  why  might  they  not  take  the  next  turn  in  the 
succession  of  universal  empire ;  and,  in  an  absolute  lordship 
over  Mede,  and  Persian,  and  Syrian,  and  Egyptian,  carry 
forward  through  another  stage  a  fulfilment  of  the  predictions 
of  their  seers. 

They,  indeed,  who  looked  deeper  into  the  purport  of  their 
mission,  and  the  law  of  Jehovah's  government  of  men,,  would 
see  that  this  establishment  of  another  Babel  empire  could 
never  be  the  work  of  that  people  whom  He  had  called,  and 
set  up  expressly  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  an  earnest 
protest  against  such  rule.  But  the  speculation  might  have 
well  been  entertained.  And  though  it  was  disturbed  at  first, 
it  would  be  afterwards  strengthened,  when  the  reins  of  uni- 
versal empire  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  young  hero  of  the 
west.  The  events  predicted  by  the  beloved  seer  were  evi- 
dently still  in  progress  :  the  silver  dominion  was  succeeded  by 
the  "brazen."  The  change  had  been  favorable  for  them, 
when  the  earnest  monotheism  of  the  Persian  had  succeeded 
that  which  had  become  the  fanatical,  as  well  as  puerile,  idola- 
try of  the  Egyptian.  But,  how  much  better  was  the  enlight- 
ened tolerance  and  active  favor  of  the  Grecian  sovereign. 
They  would  exult,  therefore,  in  the  successes  of  Alexander, 
even  at  the  beginning  of  them,  when,  perhaps,  some  fond 
hopes  were  being  disturbed  by  him.  And  when,  in  a  few 
years  more,  tidings  reached  them  of  his  irresistible  progress 
and  unlimited  conquests  in  the  distant  East,  and  of  his  per- 
sistence there  in  the  line  6i  favor  and  protection  which  he 
was  showing  to  their  people,  the  happiest,  the  most  ani- 
mating expectations  might  be  indulged  by  them.  They 
had,  indeed,  only  changed  their  masters,  but  the  change  was 
such  as  to  assure  them  afresh  of  the  prescience  of  their 
seer,  and  of  the  divine   guardianship   over   them.      It  en- 


THE  LAST   POWEE.  413 

couraged  the  highest  anticipations  on  their  part.  For  was 
not  an  iron  power  to  succeed,  and  to  prove  mightier  than 
all  that  had  previously  been  set  up?  That  power  was  to  be 
the  last;  and  where  was  it,  whence  could  it  originate,  except 
among  themselves-* 


CHAPTER  XXXm. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  MACCABEES. 

BY  REV.  G.  S.  DREW. 

The  Empire  of  Alexander  and  the  Place  of  Palestine  in  it — Changes  Going 
Forward — Alexandria  and  Egypt — The  Ptolemaic  Restorations — The  Exten- 
sion of  the  Syro-Grecian  Power — Course  of  Aflliirs  at  Jerusalem — Philoso- 
phizing Tendencies — The  Fidelity  of  Judas  Maccabaeus — A  Period  of  De- 
pression— Hopes  of  Finding  the  Dispersed  Jews — The  Maccabean  Kingdom 
— The  Conquest  by  Rome. 

HOEVER  considers  the  position  of  that  mountain 
province  in  the  very  midst  of  the  widely  extended 
empire  of  Alexander,  remembering  its  own  sacred- 
ness,  and  that  of  the  city  built  on  it,  in  the  eyes  of  the  pow- 
erful people  then  largely  dispersed  over  the  whole  empire,  and 
who,  beyond  that  sea  which  was  there  almost  in  view  of  them, 
had  the  resources  of  the  rising  West,  as  well  as  of  the  East, 
at  their  command — will  not  deem  the  expectation  that  they 
should  form  the  fourth  and  last  in  the  predicted  series  of 
kingdoms  unreasonable.  But  the  very  position  which  made 
that  hope  so  plausible,  caused  it  to  be  rudely  and  violently 
broken  up,  for,  after  a  very  few  years,  that  new  series  of  dis- 
asters, which  they  found  had  also  come  within  their  prophet's 
range,  began.  Their  mountain  territory  became  the  battle- 
ground between  the  kings  of  the  South  and  of  the  North.  The 
highland  block  of  Judea  lay  just  midway  between  their  ter- 
ritories. -And,  besides  being  important  as  commanding  the 
frontiers  of  whichever  kingdom  gained  it,  it  was  further  so  on 
account  of  the  sacredness  that  invested  the  city  built  on  it. 
"Whoever  held  Jerusalem  had  in  his  possession  the  means  of 
weakening  the  allegiance  of  large  bodies  of  subjects  in  the 


ALEXANDRIA.  415 

neighboring  kingdom.  The  contest  was,  therefore,  most  furi- 
ous, and  it  brought  on  the  people  calamities  which  could  not 
have  been  endured,  if  they  had  not  found  this  very  emergency 
delineated  with  the  utmost  plainness  in  their  sacred  rolls,  and 
a  vista  of  hope  beyond  it  opened  out  before  them.  In  the 
strength  of  this  hope  some  of  the  men,  an  elect  "remnant  of 
the  election,"  firmly  held  their  position  in  the  bare  ungenial 
region  which  was  now  exposed  to  such  danger,  which  was  the 
scene  of  such  terrible  calamity.  They  would  not  retire  from 
their  charge,  either  south,  or  north,  or  east,  into  the  colonies 
of  their  prosperous  countrymen,  settled  in  those  quarters. 
But,  in  the  villages,  and  hill  stations  centered  around  Jerusa- 
lem, they  dwelt  on  the  sacred  associations  which  connected 
every  spot  they  looked  on  with  some  venerable  name,  and  the 
whole  territory  with  the  great  hope  which  would  .yet  be  real- 
ized. So  they  nourished  their  faithfulness,  in  preparation  for 
other  trials,  far  severer  than  even  these  inroads  and  invasions, 
to  which  it  was  going  to  be  subjected. 

These  trials  resulted  from  the  change  of  mind  and  feeling 
which  was  gradually  being  effected  among  their  countrymen. 
We  may  best  illustrate  this  change  by  looking  to  the  condition 
of  those  settled  in  Egypt,  since  that  country  was  the  main 
source  of  the  influences  which  wrought  these  effects ;  from 
Egypt  they  spread,  with  its  intellectual  culture,  over  all  other 
countries  where  the  Jews  were  settled.  Their  chief  colony  in 
Egypt  was  Alexandria.  Whoever  made  his  way,  at  this  pe- 
riod, along  either  of  the  broad  streets  of  the  city,  would  rec- 
ognize among  the  busiest  of  its  merchants  and  artisans,  the 
same  marked  visage  which  was  already  becoming  familiar  in 
the  great  highways,  and  in  the  chief  cities  of  that  age.  If, 
coming  from  the  south  his  course  took  him  straight  down  to 
the  open  wharves,  there  were  the  Jew  traders,  over  their  huge 
corn  heaps,  engaged  more  energetically  than  any  others  in  the 
grain  commerce  of  the  great  seaport.  Or,  let  him  turn  east- 
ward and  he  would  find  himself  in  the  Hebrew  quarter  of  the 
city,  which  was  filled  with  the  sons  of  Abraham,  and  was  al- 


416  EGYPTIAN   CITIES. 

ready  conspicuous  by  the  splendid  synagogue  where  they  met 
every  Sabbath  day  to  hear  Moses  and  the  Prophets.  Their 
history  was  not  unknown  to  their  compatriots.  In  the  Mu- 
seum and  Library,  which  were  hard  by  their  quarter  of  the 
city,  their  sacred  books  were  familiar  in  the  language  chiefly 
spoken  in  Alexandria ;  and  the  priests  of  the  Serapeum  often 
heard  of  the  marvelous  history,  and  high  anticipations  of  this 
people,  of  their  poetry  and  wisdom.  Nor  was  this  the  only 
city  marked  and  distinguished  by  their  presence.  Besides 
Tanis,  and  Pelusium,  and  Memphis,  they  had  formed  another 
settlement  on  the  borders  of  their  old  Goshen  territory,  hard 
by  the  city  of  On,  which  was  so  illustrious  in  their  regards  by 
the  memories  of  Joseph,  and  where,  not  long  after  this  period, 
they  even  built  a  temple  in  imitation  of  that  at  Jerusalem,  and 
on  a  more  splendid  scale.  Indeed,  so  numerous  were  they  at 
this  period  in  the  country — in  which,  as  was  said,  prophecy  as 
well  as  history  gave  them  an  interest — that  Egypt  must  have 
seemed  hardly  less  sacred  than  Palestine  itself  in  their  regards. 
They  who  then  dwelt  there,  were  exposed  to  a  danger  of 
which  the  signs  and  tokens  are  perceptible  enough  in  monu- 
ments which  are  yet  extant.  The  most  numerous  of  them  are 
the  Ptolemaic  "  restorations,"  as  they  are  called.  They  all  be- 
token the  vague,  generalizing  philosophy  whose  special  ten- 
dency was  to  melt  away  that  stern,  objective  exclusiveness  of 
the  Jewish  faith,  which  was  the  main  element  of  its  anima- 
ting strength.*  Jews  in  Alexandria  held  this  faith,  indeed, 
but  they  held  it  at  this  time  with  relaxed  hold,  and  in  a  Gre- 
cian spirit,  as  a  theme  for  meditation  rather  than  as  a  princi- 

*The  best  preserved  buildings  in  Egypt,  as  at  Denderah,  Esneh,  Edfoo,  and 
Philae,  belong  to  this  period.  They  all  betoken  a  formal  copying  of  the  old  types, 
apart  from  any  vital  sympathy  with  their  spirit.  (See  Extracts  from  Journal.) 
The  great  museum  of  Alexandria  also  was  now  adorned  by  the  sphinxes  and 
obelisks  of  Thebes,  Memphis,  and  the  old  cities  of  the  Delta.  All  this  betok- 
ened just  such  an  age,  lacking  a  genuine  development  of  its  own  life,  as  would 
encourage  that  loose,  generalizing  philosophy,  which  is  well  known  to  have  risen 
up  in  Alexandria  at  that  period,  and  the  influence  of  which  on  the  Jews  was 
marked  by  the  heretical  teaching  of  Sadoc,  (cir.  250  b.  c.,)  the  founder  of  the 
Sadducees. 


418  THE   SYRO-GRECIAN    EMriRE. 

pie  of  active  life.  This  fact  may  be  connected,  not  indistinctly 
or  uncertainly,  with  the  peculiar  influences  of  scenery  and  cli- 
mate that  were  around  them.  Jews  of  the  pure  Jewish  type 
must  be  looked  for  only  in  Palestine  and  in  its  southern  prov- 
inces. The  severe  conditions  needed  for  its  culture  were  not 
found  in  Egypt.  There  must  be  harsh  and  bracing  influences 
in  the  climate,  and  nature  must  be  parsimonious  in  her  gifts, 
where  the  Hebrew  nature  is  found  in  its  perfection.  So  it 
was  that  these  same  influences  had  not  yet,  at  all  events, 
wrought  with  serious  effect  upon  the  residents  in  Palestine. 
Compared  with  their  compatriots  in  Egypt,  they  were  free. 
Yet  its  power  was  not  unfelt  by  them.  This  sinister  attach- 
ment to  the  Greek  philosophy,  this  employment  of  Plato  as 
an  interpreter  of  Moses  and  the  projDhets,  had  already  reached 
Jerusalem,  though,  as  yet,  its  influence  there  was  far  smaller 
than  in  the  neighboring  communities. 

There,  however,  it  was  felt  more  and  more,  and  it  was  con- 
stantly increased  and  strengthened  by  the  course  of  events  at 
this  period.  The  eastward  extension  of  the  Syro-Grecian 
power,  denoted  by  the  erection  of  Seleucia,  would  bring  the 
same  influences  to  bear  on  the  Jewish  communities  in  Meso- 
potamia, on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Tigris,  and  in  Media. 
And  when  this  power  was  constrained  to  move  back  westward, 
it  brought  with  it,  absorbed  into  its  ranks,  large  numbers  of 
the  eastern  Jews.  Nor  did  they  abide  in  Antioch,  and  in  the 
northern  cities  of  Syria.  In  the  next  movement  of  the  age 
we  see  the  Syrian  armies,  with  their  Jewish  cohorts,  moving 
southward  and  renewing,  on  the  old  battle-ground,  the  con- 
test between  the  kings  of  Syria  and  of  Egypt.  The  progress 
of  these  contests  gives  us  a  repetition  of  the  earlier  pages  of 
their  history,  in  the  march  of  armies  to  and  fro,  over  frontier 
ground.  But  now  the  devastation  to  be  noted  as  consequent 
on  their  position,  is  not  of  material  property,  but  of  the  con- 
victions and  habits  of  the  nation's  soul.  These  Greeks,  with 
their  levies  or  brigades  of  Grecized  Jews,  could  not  make 
their  way  to  and  fro  amidst  the  Hebrew  communities  of  Pal- 


COURSE  OF   AFFAIRS   IN  JERUSALEM.  419 

estine,  without  conveying  moral  and  intellectual  influences, 
which  tended  to  strengthen  those  that  had  already  wrought 
on  them  from  Egypt ;  and  the  result  of  the  war,  in  the  alli- 
ance compacted  between  that  country  and  Syria,  carried  for- 
ward, of  course,  and  deepened  the  disastrous  work,  until,  at 
length,  towards  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Antiochus  the  Great, 
the  temple  in  Jerusalem  began  to  be  rivalled  by  the  Grecian 
gymnasia  and  theaters  that  were  rising  up  around  it ;  debates 
in  Platonic  style  and  dialogue  were  carried  on  in  the  groves 
and  cloisters  of  the  city ;  Greek  costumes  and  habits  were 
adopted ;  the  distinctive  marks  of  Judaism  were  suppressed. 
Firm  and  rigorous  attachment  to  the  law  was  discouraged. 
And  as  before  the  whole  territory  of  Palestine,  harsh,  and 
rugged,  and  ungenial,  compared  with  the  luxurious  regions 
of  the  north  and  south  in  Syria  and  Egypt,  was  the  retreat  of 
Hebrew  fidelity,  of  the  Puritan  Jew,  as  we  may  call  him ;  so 
now,  in  Palestine  itself,  he  was  forced  to  retire  to  its  most  se- 
cluded regions,  away  from  the  great  thoroughfare,  on  its  bleak 
hill-sides,  in  its  austerest  solitudes,  in  its  most  retired  and 
lonely  glens.* 

What  they  there  heard  of  the  coiu-se  of  affairs  in  Jerusa- 
lem, must  have  smitten  them  with  atheistic  despair,  if,  recur- 
ring to  then  sacred  rolls,  they  had  not  been  able  to  assure 
themselves  that  this  period  also,  these  treasonable  concessions 
on  the  part  of  men  in  authority,  this  "cleaving"  to  Greece 
and  Egypt  "with  flatteries,"  these  "falls  of  men  of  under- 
standing,"— were  in  the  view  of  their  inspired  seer ;  and  that 
beyond  this  hour  of  trial,  he  saw  a  better  period,  a  day  of 
triumph  for  Jehovah's  cause.  Nothing  else,  surely,  could 
have  sustained  them  when  they  heard  of  the  heathenizing 
processes  that  were  going  forward  under  Jason's  influence ; 

*Modin,  the  home  of  the  Maccabees,  has  been  identified  by  Dr.  Robinson 
{Bib.  Res.  iii.  151),  with  El-Latrou,  a  village  on  the  west  side  of  the  Judean  hills, 
in  the  road  from  Ramleh  to  Jerusalem.  The  army  which  Judas  at  once  raised 
is  a  sign  that  his  family  was  one  of  a  considerable  class,  who  must  have  been 
settled  in  retired  places  of  the  kind :  the  city,  at  this  time,  was  no  home  for  men 
of  habits  and  convictions  such  as  theirs. 


420  TERRIBLE   DAYS. 

of  his  deputations  to  Antioch,  of  his  attempts  to  implicate 
the  Jews,  and  employ  their  treasures,  in  the  games  at  Tyre ; 
then  of  his  reception  of  Antiochus  at  Jerusalem,  and  of  the 
permitted  insults  and  the  accepted  scorn  which  those  fresh 
from  the  magnificent  city  and  luxurious  groves  of  the  Orontes, 
poured  upon  Jerusalem,  that  appeared  to  them  so  humble, 
compared  with  Antioch,  so  austere  and  go  repulsive.  How 
all  these  feelings  were  deepened  when  they  heard  that  they, 
Jehovah's  peoj)le,  were  now  the  subject  of  debate  and  arbi- 
tration in  a  senate  far  away  beyond  that  sea,  on  which  some 
of  them  could  look  from  their  village  homes.  And  yet  had 
not  those  "  ships  of  Chittim,"  whose  sails  whitened  their  ho- 
rizon, been  introduced  into  their  proj)het's  vision?  Nay,  from 
that  barbarous  western  people,  of  whose  prowess  rumors  had 
already  reached  them,  the  iron  sceptre  and  kingdom  might 
arise  !  So  Daniel  ministered  to  them  strength  and  consolation 
when  it  was  so  needful.  He  was  the  instrument  of  support- 
ing their  confidence  in  prospect  of  those  days  of  trial  which 
— when  they  met  in  lonely  scenes,  every  one  of  which  must 
have  been  marked  by  some  hallowed  memory,  or  when  they 
assembled  in  the  scanty  companies  that  went  up  to  the  feasts 
upon  Mount  Zion — they  told  one  another  were  assuredly  at 
hand. 

How  soon  those  days  came,  and  how  terrible  they  were, 
and  how  shameful  the  cause  and  pretext  of  them,  is  well 
known.  That  loosening  of  all  hold  upon  objective  truth, 
that  evaporation  of  all  reality  in  vague  philosophizing,  which 
Jason  introduced,  manifested  itself  in  his  case  in  its  old  and 
necessary  alliance  with  feebleness  and  baseness  of  disposition. 
No  doubt  Antiochus,  in  his  late  visit  to  Jerusalem,  had  tried 
to  the  utmost  the. obsequiousness  of  the  high  priest;  and  he 
might  well  rejoice,  therefore,  when  he  heard  the  rumor  of  the 
tyrant's  death.  Yet  his  cowardly  abandonment  of  the  people 
to  the  vengeance  of  the  tyrant,  would  sting  with  double  shame 
the  noble  men,  who,  in  their  austere  seclusion,  were  watching 
these  procedures  at  a  distance.     That  which  they  suffered  was 


k 


422  A   BRIGHTER   TIME   COMES. 

more  intolerable  than  cruel  death,  when  they  heard  what 
things  were  transacted  in  the  Holy  City.  Worse  than  tor- 
ments and  execution  was  it  that  no.  one  was  there  to  resist 
the  horrible  sacrilege  which  was  carried  forward  on  the  an- 
cient seat  of  God,  and  the  dreadful  acts  of  guilt  that  were 
forced  upon  unwilling  but  helpless  victims.  When  they  heard 
these  things,  their  strong  frames  were  shaken  with  an  agony 
that  would  have  crushed  them,  if  again  the  sacred  roll  had 
not  warned  them  of  it  all,  and  told  them  that  now  was  the 
crisis-hour  in  which  men  like  themselves  might  come  forward 
in  the  old  spirit  of  Joshua,  and  Moses,  and  Nehemiah,  "  to  be 
strong  and  do  exploits." 

The  officers  who  came  down  coastward,  among  the  hills, 
would  have  trembled  on  their  mission,  if  they  had  known  the 
purposes  that  were  being  cherished  there,  and  how  the  lion 
of  Judah  was  not  extirpated,  but  had  retired  only  deeper 
into  his  lair,  with  an  inexorable  God-supported  strength, 
which  might  never  be  overcome.  How  mighty  and  irresisti- 
ble that  purpose  was,  how  low  and  base  in  comparison  were 
the  men  with  whom  they  contended,  was  sl^own  even  in  their 
first  defeat.  Those  corpses  that  lay,  on  the  eve  of  the  Sab- 
bath day,  in  the  "secret  places  of  the  wilderness,"  helped  in 
that  great  battle  when  Judas — on  the  very  ground  where 
Joshua  had  triumphed,  in  the  pass  of  Beth-horon — chased  his 
foes  down  through  the  Aijalon  valley  into  the  Sharon  plains, 
and  began  the  career  of  triumph  which  soon  brought  him  up, 
laden  with  spoil,  across  the  western  road,  into  the  polluted 
city.  Not  only  had  those  martjrrs  witnessed  to  that  strength 
of  purpose  and  principle,  which  made  their  brethren  irresisti- 
ble, but  they  infused  it,  besides,  with  redoubled  power,  into 
the  conquerors.  And  now,  from  the  central  station  of  Pales- 
tine, another  aspect  is  cast  over  Judea ;  now  once  more  it  is 
assuming  its  ancient  vesture  :  Jerusalem  casts  off  the  Grecian 
costume  that  had  been  forced  on  her,  and  is  arrayed,  for  a 
season,  in  the  beautiful  garments  of  her  Lord. 

Those  warriors  who  had  just  fought  so  bravely  at  Emmaus, 


REVIVAL  OF   GREEK  ART.  423 

true  descendants  of  Nehemiah's  associates  as  they  were,  set 
themselves  to  toil  on  the  broad  shadeless  rocks  of  Zion  and 
Moriah,  to  cast  away,  and  with  a  relentless  purpose  to  demol- 
ish, all  the  tokens  of  the  late  heathenism  that  had  polluted 
the  sacred  place.  They  displayed  amazing  energy  in  this  un- 
dertaking, for  their  enemies  were  yet  in  the  midst  of  them; 
the 'citadel  was  not  yet  captured  ;  and  they  were  threatened 
with  invasion  from  the  northern  provinces.  Their  work,  how- 
ever, was  accomplished ;  and  in  severest  conformity  to  the 
Mosaic  ordinances.  The  Kedron,  the  Tyropeon,  were  now 
piled  high  with  fragments  of  Grecian  cornices  and  columns ; 
for  a  strong  protest  was  needed,  not  only  against  the  recent 
heathenism  of  Jason  and  his  party,  but,  in  this  case  and  as 
respected  the  temple,  against  the  innovations  of  Onias,  who 
had  decorated  in  Alexandrian  fashion  the  Jewish  temple  at 
Heliopolis.  Men  like  Judas  and  his  associates,  would,  under 
such  circumstances,  be  intolerant  of  every  approach,  however 
distant,  to  such  s^anptoms  of  apostasy,  as  they  would  deem 
them  ;  and  accordingly,  in  the  structures  which  now  rose  upon 
Moriah,  there  was  the  severest,  sternest  exclusion  of  every 
feature  which  savored  of  any  approximation  to  the  system  on 
which  they  believed  Jehovah's  curse  was  resting.  These 
puritan  Jews, — all  honor  to  their  noble  protest — dealt  in  pu- 
ritan spirit  with  the  architecture,  the  symbols,  the  robes,  even 
the  gestures  which  betokened  an  alliance,  however  distant, 
with  the  idolatry  which  they  were  raised  up  and  strengthened 
to  overthrow. 

Yet  the  severe  fidelity  of  Judas  seemed  likely  to  ruin  the 
cause  to  which  he  was  devoted.  It  raised  up  against  him  a 
strong  faction  that  stopped  the  career  of  his  own  victories  on 
the  east  of  Jordan,  and  the  successes  of  his  brother  Simon 
in  Galilee,  which,  had  they  been  seconded,  would  have  put 
the  victors  in  possession  of  the  whole  country  that  had  been 
divided  amongst  the  tribes  in  Joshua's  allotment.  In  fact, 
large  portions  of  this  territory  were  subdued  by  them.     Yet 

they  were  now  obliged  to  retire,  and  to  defend  their  southern 
26 


424  SUCCESS   OF   JUDAS   MACCABEUS. 

borders  against  the  combined  force  of  Edomites  and  Greeks, 
who  employed  against  them  the  methods  of  Indian  warfare. 
As  in  the  highhmd  wars  of  Eastern  Persia,  trained  elephants 
were  driven  by  their  enemies  through  the  narrow  valleys,  and 
over  the  low  hills  of  Judea.  And  yet  again  the  Maccabean 
cohorts  were  triumphant,  so  that  the  Syrian  King  was  forced 
to  sue  for  permission  to  pass  homewards  through  what  may 
again  be  called  Jewish  territory. 

The  success  of  Judas'  enterprise  had,  however,  been  in  im- 
minent peril  from  the  treachery  of  his  countrymen  ;  and  now, 
accordingly,  at  this  crisis,  rather  than  again  trust  them,  he 
appealed  to  the  Romans,  whom  he  then  recognized,  as  his  let- 
ter shows,  to  be  the  holders  of  the  iron  sceptre  which  Daniel 
had  foreshown.  This  was  the  first  time  when  they  came  into 
direct  relations  with  the  country  over  which  they  afterwards 
exercised  such  power.  Yet  before  they  could  send  the  prom- 
ised succor — indeed,  before  the  amltassadors  of  Judas  returned 
with  tidings  of  their  reception  by  the  Senate — he,  in  avert- 
ing a  new  peril,  was  slain.  The  factious  opponents  of  his 
severe  zeal  for  the  purity  of  the  Mosaic  ritual  triumphed  for 
awhile ;  and,  in  consequence  of  the  loss  and  heavy  discour- 
agement occasioned  by  his  death,  his  family  were  obliged  to 
retire  from  the  city. 

Then  followed  a  period  of  depression,  in  which  the  con- 
stancy of  the  Maccabees  and  that  of  their  earnest  associates, 
was  severely  tried.  They  were  driven  into  that  parched  and 
rugged  wilderness  country,  which  lies  east,  and  south,  and 
north-east  of  Jerusalem.  From  Tekoah,  the  scene  of  Jehosli- 
aphat's  triumph,  to  Michmash,  which  was  associated  with  the 
early  struggles  of  their  first  king,  Jonathan  and  his  army  were 
seen  wandering  among  the  barest  and  most  arid  regions  of 
Judea.  Old  memories,  everywhere  haunting  this  wild  terri- 
■*;ory,  were  especially  mighty  in  their  sustaining  influence. 
But  the  men  who  were  now  there  had  even  a  harder-  task  than 
fell  upon  those  heroes  who  had  first  made  this  country  illus- 
trious.    Regions  that  were  tolerable  to  their  ancestors,  the 


NEW   AND   POWERFUL  TENDENCIES.  425 

warriors  of  a  thousand  years  ago,  furnished  no  homes  for  a 
generation  on  which  the  influences  of  high  Egyptian  and 
Grecian  civilization  had  been  exerted.  Those  naked,  shade- 
less  hills,  which  had  been  trying  even  to  those  who  were  just 
emerging  from  their  Bedouin  nomadic  life,  were  incomparably 
more  trying  to  men  who  had  never  practised,  much  less  been 
familiar  with,  such  usages.  They,  therefore,  gladly,  and  it 
would  seem  by  some  relaxation  of  the  severity  of  their  de- 
ceased brother,  embraced  the  opportunity  of  forming  an  alli- 
ance with  their  more  yielding  countrymen.  And,  accordingly, 
we  find  them  returning  to  their  ancient  city,  and  engaged 
there  in  what  seems  to  have  been  a  general  effort  to  restore 
it  after  a  model  less  severe.  The  subsequent  histories  of 
Jonathan  and  Simon  lead  to  this  conclusion.  Policy,  too 
nearly  kindred  with  Grecian  craft,  appears  to  have  enabled 
them  to  keep  terms  with  the  unscrupulous  men  who  were 
then  contending  for  the  Syrian  ascendancy.  They  accepted 
the  offers  of  him  who  bade  highest  for  their  allegiance ;  and 
the  appearance  of  Jonathan,  in  his  priestly  robes,  at  the  mar- 
riage of  Alexander  Balas  at  Ptolemais,  and  his  share  in  the 
festivities  at  this  great  seaport,  which  was  now  gay  and  splen- 
did with  all  forms  of  heathen  pomp — were  a  token  and  indi-. 
cation  that  a  Grecizing  aspect,  in  compromise  between  the 
two  Jewish  parties,  was  being  cast  over  the  whole  country 
which  had  been  suljjected  to  the  recovered  government. 
They  were  now,  indeed,  in  the  midst  of  active  influences,  and 
of  exciting  events,  which  were  of  such  a  nature  that  nothing 
could  have  averted  these  ominous  changes,  except  the  firmest 
faith  and  the  most  absolutely  unbroken  union.  In  the  absence 
of  these  there  was  nothing  to  counteract  the  tendencies  which 
now  w^rought  upon  the  country  from  the  West,  not  less  than, 
as  heretofore,  from  the  North  and  South.  For,  at  this  time, 
influences  were  exerted  from  this  quarter  which  demand  atten- 
tion, if  we  would  correctly  estimate  the  significance  of  the 
Jewish  history  in  this  stage  of  it. 

The  frequent  intercourse  which  was  now  being  opened  up 


426  EXPANSION   INTO   A   KINGDOM. 

through  the  comparatively  crowded  seaports,  with  the  western 
isles  and  continent,  appears  to  have  given  them  hopes  of  find- 
ing some  of  "  the  dispersion  "  who  had  been  carried  away  in 
the  earlier  captivities.  And  it  was  under  an  impression  that 
the  Spartans  might  be  thus  identified,  that  they  now  ent^ed 
into  renewed  communications  with  Lacedemon,  a  land  like 
theirs,  and  nourishing  a  race  kindred  in  spirit  with  their  own. 
These  communications,  along  with  their  close  connection  with 
Egypt,  and  their  active  intercourse,  especially  as  auxiliary 
soldiers,  with  Syria,  made  their  country  still  more  what  we 
have  described  it,  a  Grecized-Hebrew,  rather  than  a  Jewish- 
Hebrew  kingdom.  For  distinction's  sake,  and  as  a  ground  of 
political  separation,  they,  however,  maintained  their  profession 
as  followers  of  Moses ;  and  this  outward  form  and  character 
— merely  outward,  undoubtedly,  in  the  great  body  of  the  na- 
tion— served  as  an  enclosure  that  guaranteed  security  to  the 
more  earnest  spirits  of  their  community,  who  still  kept  the 
witness  and  traditions  of  the  faith  in  pure  integrity,  and  saved 
their  countrymen  from  the  guilt  and  danger  of  open,  uncon- 
ditional apostasy. 

They  who  belonged  to  this  elect  remnant  in  the  midst  of 
the  election  were  still  numerous,  as  is  evident  from  the  signifi- 
cant clause  appended  to  what  may  be  called  the  license,  or 
patent,  of  Simon  as  their  supreme  head.  "  The  Jews  and  the 
priests  were  pleased  that  Simon  should  be  their  governor  and 
high  priest  forever,  until  there  should  arise  a  faithful  prophet." 
This  may  be  regarded  as  the  final  protest  of  the  Puritan  party 
at  this  time,  when,  their  independence  having  been  recognized, 
they  were  assuming  a  nation's  place  amongst  the  nations. 

For  not  until  this  period  may  we  think  of  the  Maccabean 
territory  as  a  kingdom.  It  had  never  until  now  extended  far 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  ground  assigned  to  the  restored  ex- 
iles by  the  Persians.  Now,  however,  under  John  Hyrcanus, 
Simon's  son  and  successor,  Jerusalem  became  the  center  of  a 
kingdom,  rather  larger  than  that  of  Hezekiah.  Tribute  was 
no  longer  paid  to  the  Syrian  king.     Shechem  and  Samaria,  the 


ABSORPTION   OF   IDUMEA.  427 

towns  on  the  Philistine  coast,  and  the  Idumean  settlements  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Hebron,  were  included  in  the  dominions 
of  Hyrcanus.  This  absorption  by  him  of  the  Idumean  into 
the  Hebrew  nation,  and  his  renewed  appeal  to  the  Romans, 
showed,  however,  that  Hyrcanus  did  not  meditate  a  pure 
monarchy,  but  one  that  might  take  its  place  homogeneously 
with  those  empires  rising  up  north  and  west  of  him,  amongst 
which  his  now  well-compacted  realm  might  assume  a  good 
position.  This  purpose  was  furthered  by  his  breach  with  the 
Pharisees,  whose  views  were  already  ossifying  into  the  lifeless 
forms  of  Rabbinism.  They  ceased  to  uphold  a  living  protest, 
such  as  might  have  reanimated  or  restored  a  pure  Hebrew  life. 
The  inferior  natures  among  them  dried  and  stiffened  into  the 
form  of  the  typal  Pharisees ;  while  the  rest,  hopeless  and  de- 
pressed, retired  into  the  ascetic  communities  which  began  at 
this  time  to  form  themselves  in  the  wilderness  neighborhood 
of  Jerusalem,  especially  in  the  parched  solitudes  along  the 
Kedron  valley.  The  dreary,  scorched,  and  rugged  border 
country,  west  of  the  Dead  Sea,  now  contained,  in  the  com- 
munities of  the  Essenes,  the  heart  and  nucleus  of  that  faith- 
ful company  for  the  protection  of  which,  Palestine  was  still 
maintained  in  its  integrity,  secure,  and  in  comparative  inde- 
pendence. 

That  it  was  thus  maintained,  notwithstanding  the  turbulent 
character  of  Alexander  Janneus,  who  almost  immediately 
succeeded  John  Hyrcanns,  may  be  explained  by  its  position. 
His  restless,  aggressive  spirit,  his  reckless  alienation  from  his 
countrymen — especially  as  shown  in  his  employment  of  large 
bodies  of  mercenary  troops — his  ill  success  .  in  war — would 
assuredly,  at  any  other  period,  have  again  reduced  his  realm 
inl;o  absolute  subjection,  and  caused  it  to  be  absorbed  into  the 
dominion  either  of  the  kings  of  the  South  or  of  the  North. 
But  all  through  the  reign  of  Janneus  these  kingdoms  were 
themselves  divided  and  in  peril ;  and  the  position  of  Palestine 
was  just  such  as  to  keep  it  clear,  under  a  government  like 
that  of  Janneus,  of  any  ruinous  implication  ui  their  affairs. 


428  THE   ROMAN   POLICY. 

There  T^as  civil  strife  between  the  different  branches  of  the 
(dependent)  royal  family  of  Egypt,  both  in  that  country 
itself,  and  in  its  island  dependencies  in  the  Levant.  Syria, — 
now  under  Tigranes,  the  Armenian  king,  —  was.  suffering 
beneath  the  same  calamity,  and  was,  besides,  fully  and  unsuc- 
cessfully occupied  in  defending  its  boundaries  from  the  slow 
but  irresistible  aggression  of  the  Roman  power.  Now,  the 
Asmonsean  territory  itself,  occupied  with  internal  strifes,  was 
so  placed  between  these  powers,  that  it  could  not  be  drawn 
into  their  contentions.  Thus  its  position  kept  it  separate, 
fenced  it  round  in  this  period  of  its  greatest  jeopardy,  so  that  it 
was  not  absorbed  as  it  would  otherwise  have  been,  eithec  in 
the  Egyptian  or  the  Syrian  dominion.  This,  as  we  now  well 
know,  was  needful  for  the  highest  purposes;  and,  by  its 
circumstances  and  position,  this  object  was  secured,  un- 
til the  advancing  Roman  empire  came,  in  due  time,  to 
cast  over  it  that  shielding  protection  under  which  it  con- 
tinued during  the  century  and  a  half  of  its  remaming 
history. 

For  the  purpose  of  furnishing  such  protection,  the  invari- 
able policy  of  the  Romans,  and  the  free  philosophizing  sjDirit 
that  then  obtained  in  the  republic,  eminently  fitted  it.  Un- 
like Egypt  and  Syria,  it  was  content  with  the  political  alle- 
giance of  the  nations  it  intermeddled  with,  and  left  them  free 
in  all  matters  of  theology  and  worship.  Doubtless  it  was  on 
account  of  their  knowledge  of  this  rule  and  law  of  Roman 
conquest,  that  the  application  of  Judas  and  of  John  Hyrcanus 
to  the  republic,  for  alliance  and  arbitration,  had  been  permit- 
ted by  the  people,  and  that  they  had  acquiesced  when  the  am- 
bassadors of  the  greatest  of  the  western  powers  entered  into 
their  city.  And  it  was  in  natural  pursuance  of  the  same  policy 
that  Aristobulus  <and  Hyrcanus,  the  two  rival  claimants  of  the 
Maccabean  throne,  consented  to  that  submission  of  their  titles 
to  Pompey  and  his  generals,  which  brought  him,  with  his  iron 
legions,  first  into  Jerusalem.  Besides,  had  they  not  prece- 
dents in  their  earlier  history  for  such  a  step  ?     Had  not  Ahaa 


THE   SUBJECTION   OF  ARABIA.  429 

also -gone  up  to  Darrfascus,  to  the  Assyrian  king,  for  succor 
and  for  counsel  ?  They  accordingly  went,  each  with  a  large 
escort  for  the  safety  of  the  heavy  bribes  which  he  carried  with 
him,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  anxiously  waited  to 
learn  whether  Aristobulus,  with  his  laxer  policy  of  concession 
to  Greek  influences,  or  Hyrcanus,  with  the  Pharisees,  and 
with  his  Edomite  counselor,  who  was,  like  all  proselytes, 
attached  to  the  more  rigid  party — was  henceforth  to  have  as- 
cendancy. Their  doubts  were  not,  however,  solved  when  the 
former  returned  to  them  defeated,  since  he  was  resolved  on 
further  contest.  But,  then,  sad  forebodings  were  added  to 
their  uncertainty ;  for  it  was  not  likely  that  the  successful 
Roman,  who  had  hitherto  trampled  down  and  crushed  all 
opposition  in  his  rise  and  progress,  would  brook  such  an  op- 
position to  his  decision  between  their  opposing  claims. 

Besides,  remarkable  success  had  lately  attended  his  great 
expedition  for  the  subjection  of  Arabia.  The  Jews  would 
remember  the  march  of  their  forefathers,  under  Moses,  on  the 
very  same  desert  track  which  Pompey  was  now  traversing  on 
his  way  to  Petra ;  the  subjection  of  that  rock-girt  city  had 
been  one  of  the  greatest  achievements  of  their  most  valiant 
kings ;  and  now  they  heard  that  the  Roman  triumvir  had  ef- 
fected it,  thus  possessing  himself  of  the  old  track  of  Solomon's 
commerce,  to  the  head  of  the  Eastern  Gulf  of  the  Red  Sea. 
Then  followed  the  tidings  that  this  irresistible  conqueror, 
breathing  vengeance  upon  Aristobulus  and  his  party,  was  on 
his  way  from  the  balsam-groves  ,of  Jericho,  up  the  steep  and 
craggy  path  that  led  thence  to  Jerusalem.  A  few  hours  more, 
and  they  descried  the  steadfast  and  irresistible  legions,  coming 
in  sight  along  the  winding  road  on  the  south  of  Olivet!  No 
invader  before  had  ever  brought  his  "troops  up  against  them 
upon  that  side  of  their  city.  But  there  the  world-famed 
veterans  were,  and  there  was  the  triumvir  himself — the  re- 
served strong  man  that  had  toiled  and  fought  his  way  upward 
to  his  almost  supreme  station  in  the  empire.  There  was  only 
one  other  man  in  the  world  who  could  dispute  the  claim  of 


430  DESTRUCTION   OF  JERUSALEM. 

Pompey  to  absolute  ascendancy ;  and  how,  then,  could  Aris- 
tobulus  venture  to  resist  his? 

He,  on  the  other  hand,  during  the  weeks  in  which  he  waited 
there  for  the  Tyrian  engines,  for  which  he  sent  as  soon  as  he 
had  scanned  with  his  practised  eye  the  towered  defences  of 
the  city, — would  marvel  at  the  inexorable  resolution  of  the 
men  entrenched  in  those  narrow  limits  ;  for  Jerusalem  seemed 
to  him  little  more  than  a  hill  fort,  in  comparison  with  many 
which  only  a  few  weeks  had  sufficed  to  crush.  The  Roman 
eagle  glared  with  imperial  contempt  on  the  impotent  resist- 
ance. But  the  lion  of  Judah  was  at  bay,  and  frowned  back 
with  as  high  disdain.  Soon,  however,  he  was  made  to  quail 
beneath  the  mighty  instruments  and  the  invincible  discijjline 
of  the  Roman  army.  Closer  and  closer,  in  irresistible  advance, 
the  huge  towers  were  moved  over  the  ravines  north  of  the 
temple,  now  filled  up  with  the  stones  and  beams  of  the  bat- 
tered wall.  Then  through  the  breaches,  and  over  scaling 
ladders,  the  irresistible  assault  was  made  ;  and  the  desecrating 
effigy  soon  rose  high  above  the  temple  mount ;  "  the  abomina- 
tion that  maketh  desolate  "  was  set  up  in  the  holy  place ;  and 
even  into  the  Most  Holy  the  heathen  conqueror  strode  onward. 
The  dying  priests,  who  lay  wounded  beside  the  altar,  saw 
him  lift  the  purple  veil,  look  with  scornful  wonder  on  the 
empty  space,  and  return  to  his  work  of  vindictive  devast- 
ation. 

When  Pompey  left  Jerusalem,  that  work  was  terribly  com- 
plete. The  walls  of  the  city  were  again  overthrown ;  the 
temple,  dishonored  by  his  sacrilege,  was  once  more  in  ruins. 
Their  treasures,  indeed,  were  spared.  But  their  brief  liberty 
was  at  an  end ;  Judea  was  now  only  a  Roman  province.  The 
mourners  who  carried  the  dead  down  the  slopes  of  Jehosh- 
aphat  into  the  sepulchre  hewn  there  in  the  mount,  would 
rather  desire  than  commiserate  the  lot  of  the  departed ;  for 
had  not  they  been  the  last  partakers  of  Hebrew  freedom  in 
Jerusalem  ?  Nothing  but  humiliation  was  henceforth  before 
them,  for  the  conqueror  was  already  engaged  in  imposing  his 


WHAT  JERUSALEM  ]VnGHT   HAVE   BEEN.  431 

own  laws  upon  the  subject  provinces ;  and  he  had  declared 
his  intention  to  take  the  rebellious  Maccabean,  with  his  two 
sons,  to  adorn  and  illustrate  his  triumph  in  the  great  western 
city,  which  had  become  what  Jerusalem  might  have  been,  the 
ruling  city  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER   XXXIV. 

THE  HOLY  PLACES  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

Difference  Between  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  in  Respect  to  Geographical 
Importance — The  Holy  Places  Narrated — Betlileliem — The  Cliurch  of  Helena 
— The  Grotto  of  the  Nativity — Nazareth — Grotto  in  the  Latin  Convent — 
Spring  Near  the  Greek  Churcli — House  at  Loretto — Origin  of  the  Legends 
— Jerusalem — Tlie  Unimportant  Localities — Churcli  of  the  Ascension — Tomb 
of  the  Virgin — Garden  of  Gethsemane — The  Ccenaculum — Church  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre — The  Rock  of  Golgotlia — Diversity  of  Sects — Greek  Easter — 
The  Holy  Fire— Other  Places  of  Interest— The  Travels  of  St.  Paul— Patmos. 

N  the  Old  Testament,  the  study  of  the  hallowed  soil 
of  Palestine  is  the  constant  helper  of  him  who 
seeks  to  trace  aright  the  onward  flow  of  the  sacred 
story.  It  is  simply  impossible  to  read  the  Old  Testament  in- 
telligently without  one  be  well  grounded  in  biblical  geography, 
so  closely  is  its  spirit  held  in  solution  by  the  letter,  so  closely 
is  the  word  of  God  incarnate  in  the  men  and  places  that  the 
older  books  of  the  Bible  bring  into  view.  But  the  New  Tes- 
tament is  quite  different.  The  record  of  Christ's  life  and 
works  is  so  entirely  spiritual,  that  it  becomes  almost  a  matter 
purely  incidental  where  Jesus  lived  and  wrought.  And  to  a 
great  extent  is  it  so  with  the  stor}^  of  the  planting  of  Christian- 
ity, and  the  letters  of  the  apostles  to  the  infant  churches.  It  is 
true  we  do  take  a  pleasure  in  following  Paul,  and  seeing  him 
advance  from  post  to  post  scattering  the  word ;  and  thus  sacred 
geography  has  its  service  even  in  the  New  Testament,  but  it 
is  quite  subordinate  to  the  subject  matter  of  the  work.  And 
very  many  of  the  very  best  Christians  who  have  ever  lived, 
have  known  nothing  at  all  about  the  places  mentioned  in  the 
book  which  has  guided  them  to  their  salvation. 


BETHLEHEM. 


434  BETHLEHEM. 

Among  the  places  which  must  stand  foremost  in  any  effort 
to  tell  the  story  of  our  Saviour's  life,  are  Bethlehem  and 
Nazareth,  the  place  of  Jesus'  birth,  and  the  scene  of  his  child- 
hood and  youth.  They  have  been  so  well  described  by  Dean 
Stanley,  that  we  are  tempted  to  transcribe  his  vivid  pictures 
from  his  fascinating  Sinai  and  Palestine.  To  them  we  sub- 
join his  brief,  but  satisfactory  sketch  of  the  Jerusalem  of  the 
New  Testament,  which  we  may  add  as  a  pendant  to  that  which 
we  have  already  given  in  our  studies  of  the  life  of  David. 

Whether  from  its  being  usually  the  first  seen  by  travelers, 
or  from  its  own  intrinsic  solemnity,  there  is  probably  none 
which  produces  so  great  an  impression  at  first  sight  as  the  Con- 
vent of  the  Nativity  at  Bethlehem.  It  is  an  enormous  pile  of 
buildings,  extending  along  the  ridge  of  the  hill  from  west  to 
east,  and  consisting  of  the  Church  of  the  Nativity,  with  the 
three  convents,  Latin,  Greek,  and  Armenian,  abutting  respect- 
ively upon  its  north-eastern,  south-eastern,  and  south-western 
extremities.  Externally  there  is  nothing  to  command  atten- 
tion beyond  its  size — the  more  imposing  from  the  meanness 
and  smallness  of  the  village,  which  hangs  as  it  were  on  its 
western  skirts.  In  the  church  itself  the  only  portion  of  pe- 
culiar interest  is  the  nave — common  to  all  the  sects,  and  for 
that  very  reason  deserted,  bare,  discrowned,  but  in  all  -prob- 
ability the  most  ancient  monument  of  Christian  architecture 
in  the  world.  It  is  all  that  now  remains  of  the  Basilica,  built 
by  Helena  herself,  the  prototype  of  those  built  by  her  Impe- 
rial son  at  Jerusalem,  beside  the  Holy  Sepulchre  and  at  Rome, 
over  the  graves  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter.  The  long  double 
lines  of  Corinthian  pillars,  the  faded  mosaics,  dimly  visible  on 
the  walls  above,  as  in  the  two  Churches  of  St.  Apollinaris 
at  Ravenna,  the  rough  ceiling  of  beams  of  cedar  from  Leb- 
anon, still  preserve  the  outlines  of  the  Church,  once  blaz- 
ing with  gold  and  marble — in  which  Baldwin  was  crowned, 
and  which  received  its  latest  repairs  from  our  own  Edward  IV. 

From  this,  the  only  interesting  portion  of  the  upper  church, 
we  descend  to  that  subterranean  vault,  over  which,  and  for 


THE   saviour's   BIRTHPLACE.  437 

which,  the  whole  -structure  was  erected.  There,  at  the  en- 
trance of  a  long  winding  passage,  excavated  out  of  the  lime- 
stone rock,  of  which  the  hill  of  Bethlehem  is  composed,  the 
pilgrim  finds  himself  in  an  irregular  chapel,  dimly  lighted  with 
silver  lamps,  and  containing  two  small  recesses,  nearly  oppo- 
site each  other.  In  the  northernmost  of  these  is  a  marble 
slab,  which  marks  the  supposed  spot  of  the  Nativity,  with  the 
rays  of  the  silver  star,  sent  from  Vienna  in  1852,  to  supply 
the  place  of  that  which  the  Greeks — truly  or  falsely — were 
charged  with  having  stolen.  In  the  southern  recess,  three 
steps  deeper  in  the  chapel,  is  the  alleged  stall,  in  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  Latin  tradition,  was  discovered  the  wooden 
manger  or  "prsesepe,"  now  deposited  in  the  magnificent  Ba- 
silica of  S.  Maria  Maggiore  at  Rome,  and  there  displayed  un- 
der the  auspices  of  the  Pope,  every  Christmas  day. 

Let  us  pause  for  a  moment  in  the  dim  vault,  between  the 
two  recesses ;  let  us  dismiss  the  consideration  of  the  lesser 
memorials  which  surround  us  on  all  sides — the  altar  of  the 
Magi — of  the  Shepherds — of  Joseph — of  the  Innocents — to 
which,  probably,  no  one  would  now  attach  any  other  than  an 
imaginative  importance,  and  ask  what  ground  there  is  for  be- 
lieving or  disbelieving  the  tradition  which  invites  us  to  con- 
fine the  awful  associations  of  the  village  of  Bethlehem  within 
these  rocky  walls.  Alone,  of  all  the  existing  local  traditions 
of  Palestine,  this  one  indisputably  reaches  beyond  the  time  of 
Constantine.  Already  in  the  second  century,  "a  cave  near 
Bethlehem  "  was  fixed  upon  as  the  place  where,  "  there  being 
no  place  in  the  village,  where  he  could  lodge,  Joseph  abode, 
and  where  accordingly  Christ  was  born  and  laid  in  a  manger." 
And  this  seems  to  have  been  the  constant  tradition  of  the 
place,  even  amongst  those  who  were  not  Christians,  in  the  next 
generation,  and  to  have  been  uniformly  maintained  in  the 
Apocryphal  Gospels,  which  have  always  exercised  so  power- 
ful an  influence  over  the  popular  belief  of  the  humbler  classes 
of  the  Christian  world,  both  in  the  East  and  the  West.  It  is 
perhaps  invidious  to  remark  upon  the  deviations  from  the  Gos- 


438  TFTK   CAVES   OF    BETHLEHEM. 

pel  narrative,  which  tells  us  that  the  want  of  room  was  not  in 
the  villa<,ni,  but  in  tlie  inn  ;  and  that  the  hardshii)  was  not  that 
they,  were  driven  from  the  villaL;e  to  the  inn,  but  from  tlie  inn 
to  the  manger.  Such  a  deviation  implies,  perhaps,  an  inde- 
pendent origin  of  'the  local  tradition,  but  not  necessarily  its 
falsehood.  And  if  at  Bethlehem  the  caves  m  the  limestone 
rock,  on  which  the  village  stands,  were  commonly  used  as  else- 
where in  Palestine  for  horses  and  cattle,  the  omission  of  all 
allusion  to  the  cave  in  St.  Luke's  narrative  would  be,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  explained.  On  the  other  hand,  the  general  im- 
pression of  the  account  in  Justin  i^,  certainly  different  from 
that  of  St.  Luke ;  and  if  (with  the  tradition  which  Justin 
seems  to  have  followed,  and  M'hich  has  unquestionaljly  pre- 
vailed since  the  time  of  Jerome)  we  lay  the  scene  of  the 
Adoration  of  the  Magi  on  the  same  spot,  it  is  positively  ir- 
reconcilable with  the  words  of  St.  ]\Iatthew,  that  they  came 
into  the- '•'■  house  where  the  young  child  was."  We  must  add 
to  this  the  often-repeated  suspicion  which  INIaundrell  was  the 
first  to  express,  which  attaches  to  the  constant  connection  of 
the  several  localities  of  Palestine  with  grottoes  and  caves. 
However  much  it  may  be  urged  that,  in  a  country  like  Pales- 
tine, natural  excavations  are  unavoidably  employed  for  pur- 
poses of  dwelling,  of  sepulture,  of  rest,  for  which  in  Europe 
they  never  would  be  used,  yet  for  this  ver}^  reason  there  would 
be  a  disposition  to  attach  events  to  them,  if  the  real  locality 
had  been  forgotten.  If,  for  example,  in  the  case  now  hi  ques- 
tion, the  caravanserai  or  khan  had  been  swept  away  in  the 
convulsions  of  the 'Jewish  war,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Beth- 
lehem had  any  wish  to  give  a  local  habitation  to  the  event 
which  made  their  village  illustrious,  they  would  almost  inev- 
itably fix  on  a  strongly-marked  natural  feature,  such  as  the 
cave  of  the  convent  must,  in  its  original  aspect,  have  been. 
And  another  motive  leading  to  the  same  result  transpires 
through  the  same  passage  of  Justin  which  first  mentions  the 
tradition,  namely,  the  attempt  to  find  a  fulfillment  of  a  fancied 
prediction  of  the  Messiah's  birth  in  the  LXX.  translation  of 


THE  CONVENT  OP  BETHLEHEM. 


439 


the  words  of  Isaiah,  "He  shall  dwell  on  high;    his  place  of 
defence  shall  be  in  a  'lofty  cave  of  the  strong  rock.'" 

One  further  objection  to  the  identity  of  tlie  whole  scene 
must  be  mentioned  in  conclusion.  During  the  troubled  period 
of  the  invasion  of  Ibrahim  Pasha  the  Arab  population  of 
Bethlehem  took  possession  of  the  convent,  and  dismantled 
the  whole  of  the  recess  of  that  gilding  and  marble  which  is 
the  bane  of  so  many  sanctuaries,  European  and  Asiatic.  The 
native  rock  of  the  cave  was  disclosed ;  but  also,  it  is  said,  an 
ancient  sepulchre  hewn  in  that  very  spot.  It  is  possil)le,  but 
hardly  possible,  that  a  rock  devoted  to  sex3ulchral  purposes 


GROTTO  OF  THE  NATIVITY,  BETHLEHEM. 

would  have  been  emploj'ed  by  Jcavs,  whose  scruples  on  this 
subject  are  too  well  known  to  need  comment,  either  as  an  inn 
or  a  stable. 

Still  there  remains  the  remarkable  fact  that  the  spot  was 
reverenced  by  Christians  as  the  birthplace  of  Christ  two 
centuries  before  the  conversion  of  the  Empire, — ^before  that 
burst  of  local  religion  which  is  commonly  ascribed  to  the  visit 
of  Helena.  And  out  of  these  earliest  and  most  sacred  of  its 
recollections  has  grown  a  subordinate  train  of  associations, 
which  has  at  least  the  advantage  of  being  unquestionably 


440  NAZARETH. 

grounded  on  fact.  If  the  traveler  follows  the  windings  of 
that  long  subterranean  gallery,  he  will  lind  himself  at  its 
close  in  a  rough  chamber  hewn  out  of  the  rock;  here  suf- 
ficiently clear  to  need  no  proof  or  vindication.  In  this  cell, 
in  all  probability,  lived  and  died  the  most  illustrious  of  all  the 
pilgrims  attracted  to  the  cave  of  Bethlehem — the  only  one  of 
the  many  hermits  and  monks  from  the  time  of  Constantine  to 
the  present  day  sheltered  within  its  rocky  sides,  whose  name 
has  traveled  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Holy  Land.  Here,  for 
more  than  thirty  years,  beside  what  he  believed  to  be  literally 
the  cradle  of  the  Christian  faith,  Jerome  fasted,  prayed, 
breamed,  and  studied — here  he  gathered  round  him  his  devoted 
followers  in  the  small  communities  which  formed  the  begin- 
nings of  conventual  life  in  Palestine — here,  the  fiery  spirit 
which  he  had  brought  with  him  from  his  Dalmatian  birthplace, 
and  which  had  been  first  roused  to  religious  fervor  on  the  banks 
of  the  Moselle,  vented  itself  in  the  flood  of  treatises,  letters, 
commentaries,  which- he  poured  forth  from  his  retirement,  to 
terrif}',  exasperate,  and  enlighten  the  Western  world — here 
also  was  composed  the  famous  translation  of  the  Scriptures 
which  is  still  the  "Biblia  Vulgata"  of  the  Latin  Church;  and 
here  took  place  that  pathetic  scene,  his  last  communion  and 
death — at  which  all  the  world  has  been  permitted  to  be  pres- 
ent in  the  wonderful  picture  of  Domenichino,  which  has  rep- 
resented, in  colors  never  to  be  surpassed,  the  attenuated  frame 
of  the  weak  and  sinking  flesh — the  resignation  and  devotion 
of  the  spirit  ready  for  its  immediate  departure. 

The  interest  of  the  "  Holy  Place  "  of  Nazareth  is  of  a  kind 
different  from  that  of  Bethlehem.  At  the  south-eastern  ex- 
tremity of  the  village  stands  the  massive  convent,  so  well 
known  from  the  hosjDitable  reception  it  affords  to  travelers 
caught  in  the  storms  of  the  hills  of  Gilboa,  or  attacked  hj  the 
Bedouins  of  the  plain  of  Esdraelon ;  so  well  known  also  for 
the  impressiveness  of  its  religious  services,  where  wild  fig- 
ures in  the  rough  drapery  and  the  rude  rope-fillet  and  kefyeh 
of  the  Bedouin  dress,  join  in  the  responses  of  Christian  wor- 


THE   HOLY   PLACES   AT   NAZAKETH.  441 

ship,  and  the  chants  of  the  Latin  Church  are  succeeded  by  a 
sermon  addressed  to  these  strange  converts  in  their  own  native 
Arabic  with  all  the  earnestness  and  solemnity  of  the  preach- 
ers of  Italy.  There  is  no  church  in  Palestine  where  the  re- 
ligious services  seem  so  worthy  of  the  sacredness  of  the  place. 

But  neither  is  there  any  place  where  traditional  and  local 
sanctities  undergo  so  severe  a  shock.  Elsewhere,  however 
discreditable  the  conflicts  of  the  various  sects,  they  have  yet 
for  the  most  part  agreed  (and  indeed  this  very  agreement  is 
the  occasion  of  their  conflicts)  on  the  spots  which  they  wish 
to  venerate.  But  at  Nazareth  there  are  three  counter-theori^ 
— each  irreconcilable  with  the  other — in  relation  to  the  special 
scene,  which  has  been  selected  for  peculiar  reverence. 

From  the  entrance  of  the  Franciscan  church  a  flight  of  steps 
descends  to  an  altar,  which  stands  within  a  recess,  partly  cased 
in  marble,  but  partly  showing  the  natural  rock  out  of  which 
it  is  formed.  On  a  marble  slab  in  front  of  this  altar,  worn 
with  the  lasses  of  many  pilgrims,  are  the  words,  "  Verbum 
caro  hie  factum  est,"  and  intended  to  mark  the  spot  on  which 
the  Virgin  stood  when  she  received  the  angelic  visitation. 
Close  by  is  a  broken  pillar,  which  in  like  manner  is  pointed 
out  as  indicating  the  space  occupied  by  the  celestial  visitant, 
who  is  supposed  to  have  entered  through  a  hole  in  the  rocky 
wall  forming  the  western  front  of  the  cave,  close  by  the  open- 
ing which  now  unites  it  with  the  church.  The  back,  or  east- 
ern side  of  the  grotto  behind  the  altar  opens  by  a  narrow  pas- 
sage into  a  further  cave,  left  much  more  nearly  in  its  natural 
state,  and  said  by  an  innocent  tradition,  which  no  one  would 
care  either  to  assert  or  to  refute,  to  have  been  the  residenoe 
of  a  friendly  neighbor  who  looked  after  the  adjacent  house 
when  Mary  departed  on  her  journey  to  see  Ehzabeth  in 
Judsea. 

To  any  one  who  knows  the  rivalry  which  prevails  in  the 
East  between  the  Greeks  and  the  Latins  on  the  subject  of  the 
Holy  Places,  it  will  not  be  surprising  that  the  Greeks  excluded 

from  this  convent,  have  their  own  "  Church  of  the  Annuncia- 

27 


442  TRADITIONS   OF  NAZARETH. 

tion"  at  the  opposite  end  of  the  town.  But  it  would  be  in- 
justice to  them  to  suppose  that  this  contradiction  was  merely 
the  result  of  jealousy.  In  the  abstinence  of  the  Scriptural 
narrative  from  any  attempt  to  localize  the  scene — from  any 
indication  whether  it  took  place  by  day  or  niglit,  in  house  or 
field — the  Greeks  may  at  least  be  pardoned  for  having  clung 
to  the  faint  shadow  of  tradition  which  lingers  in  the  Apocry- 
phal Gospels.  In  that  which  bears  the  name  of  St.  James  we 
are  told  that  the  first  salutation  of  the  Angel  came  to  Mary 
as  she  was  drawing  water  from  the  spring  in  the  neighborhood 
4)f  the  town.  That  spring  still  remains  and  bears  her  name, 
and  in  the  open  meadow  by  its  side  stands  the  Greek  Church 
of  the  Annunciation,  a  dull  and  mournful  conti-ast  in  its  closed 
doors  and  barbarous  architecture  to  the  solemn  yet  animated 
worship  of  the  Franciscan  convent — but  undoubtedly  with  a 
better  claim  to  be  an  authentic  memorial  of  the  event  which 
they  both  claim  as  their  own. 

But  the  tradition  of  the  Latin  Church  has  to  undergo  a  yet 
ruder  trial.  There  is  another  scene  of  the  Annunciation,  not 
at  the  other  extremity  of  the  little  town  of  Nazareth,  but  in 
another  continent — not  maintained  by  a  rival  and  hostile  sect, 
but  fostered  by  the  supreme  head  itself  of  the  Roman  Church. 
On  the  slope  of  the  eastern  Apennines,  overlooking  the  Adri- 
atic Gulf,  stands  what  may  be  called  (according  to  the  belief 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church)  the  European  Nazareth. 
Fortified  as  if  by  the  bastions  of  a  huge  castle,  against  the  ap- 
proach of  Saracenic  pirates,  a  vast  church,  even  now  gorgeous 
with  the  offerings  of  the  faithful,  contains  the  "  Santa  Casa," 
the  "  Holy  House,"  in  which  the  Virgin  lived,  and  (as  is  at- 
tested by  the  same  inscription  as  that  at  Nazareth)  received 
the  Angel  Gabriel.  Every  one  knows  the  story  of  the  House 
of  Loretto.  The  devotion  of  one-half  the  woiid,  and  the  ridi- 
cule of  the  other  half,  has  made  us  all  acquainted  with  the 
strange  story,  written  in  all  the  languages  of  Europe  round 
the  walls  of  that  remarkable  sanctuary :  how  the  house  of 
Nazareth  was,  in  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  convej^ed 


DIVINE  WORSHIP   AT  NAZARETH.  443 

by  angels,  first  to  the  heights  above  Fiume,  at  the  head  of  the 
Adriatic  Gulf,  then  to  the  plain,  and  lastly  to  the  hill,  of 
Loretto.  But  this  "wondrous  flitting"  of  the  Holy  House  is 
not  the  feature  in  its  history  which  is  most  present  to  the  pil- 
grims who  frequent  it.  It  is  regarded  by  them  simply  as  an 
actual  fragment  of  the  Holy  Land,  sacred  as  the  very  spot  on 
which  the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  was  announced  and  be- 
gun. In  proportion  to  the  sincerity  and  extent  of  this  belief 
is  the  veneration  which  attaches  to  what  is  undoubtedly. the 
most  frequented  sanctuary  of  Christendom.  The  devotion  of 
pilgrims  even  on  week-days  exceeds  anything  that  is  seen  at 
any  of  the  holy  places  in  Palestine,  if  we  except  the  Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at  Easter. 

Before  the  dawn  of  day  the  worship  begins.  "Whilst  it  is 
yet  dark,  the  doors  are  openc  d — a  few  lights  round  the  sacred 
spot  break  the  gloom,  and  disclose  the  kneeling  Capuchins, 
who  have  been  here  throughout  the  night.  Two  soldiers, 
sword  in  hand,  take  their  place  by  the  entrance  of  the  "  House," 
to  guard  against  all  injury.  One  of  the  hundred  priests  who 
are  in  daily  attendance  immediately  begins  mass  at  the  high 
altar  of  the  church,  the  first  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  that 
are  repeated  daily  within  its  precincts.  The  "Santa  Casa" 
itself  is  then  opened  and  Hghted,  the  pilgrims  then  flock  in ; 
and,  from  that  hour  till  sunset,  come  and  go  in  a  perpetual 
stream.  The  "  House  "  is  thronged  with  kneeling  or  prostrate 
figures,  the  pavement  round  it  is  deeply  worn  with  the  pas- 
sage of  pilgrims,  who,  fiom  the  humblest  peasant  of  the 
Abruzzi  up  to  the  King  of  Naples,  crawl  round  it  on  their 
knees ;  the  nave  is  filled  with  the  bands  of  worshipers  who, 
having  visited  the  sacred  spot,  are  retiring  backwards  from  it, 
as  from  some  royal  presence. 

On  the  Santa  Casa  alone  depends  the  sacredness  of  the 
whole  locality  in  which  it  stands.  Loretto — whether  the  name 
is  derived  from  the  sacred  grove  (Lauretum)  or  the  lady 
(Loreta)  under  whose  shelter  the  house  is  believed  to  have 
descended — had  no  existence  before  the  rise  of  this  extraor- 


444  THE   HOUSE   OP    LORETTO. 

dinary  sanctuary.  The  long  street  with  its  venders  of  rosaries, 
the  palace  of  the  governor,  the  strong  walls  built  by  Pope 
Sixtus  IV.,  are  all  mere  appendages  to  the  humble  edifice 
which  stands  within  the  Church.  The  "  Santa  Casa  "  is  spoken 
of  by  them  as  a  living  person,  a  corporation  on  which  the 
whole  city  depends,  to  which  the  whole  property  iar  and 
near  over  the  rich  plain  which  lies  spread  beneath  it  belong-s 
forever. 

No  one  who  has  ever  witnessed  the  devotion  of  the  Italian 
people  on  this  singular  spot,  can  wish  to  speak  lightly  of  the 
feelings  which  it  inspires.  But  a  dispassionate  statement  of 
the  real  facts  of  the  case  may  not  be  without  use.  Into  the 
general  question  of  the  story  we  need  not  enter  here.  It  has 
been  ably  proved  elsewhere,  first,  that  of  all  the  pilgrims  who 
record  their  visit  to  Nazareth  from  the  fourth  to  the  sixteenth 
century,  not  one  alludes  to  any  house  of  Joseph  as  standing 
there,  or  as  having  stood  there,  within  human  memory  or  rec- 
ord ;  secondly,  that  the  records  of  Italy  contain  no  mention  of 
tjie  House  till  the  fifteenth  century ;  thirdly,  that  the  represen- 
tation of  the  story  as  it  now  stands,  with  the  double  or  triple 
transplantation- of  the  sanctuary,  occurs  first  in  a  bull  of  Leo 
X.  in  the  year  1518.  But  it  is  the  object  of  these  remarks 
simply  to  confront  the  House  as  it  stands  at  Loretto  with  the 
House  as  it  appears  at  Nazareth.  It  has  been  already  said 
that  each  professes  to  contain  the  exact  spot  of  the  angelic 
visitation,  to  be  the  scene  of  a  single  event  which  can  only 
have  happened  in  one ;  each  claims  to  be  the  very  House  of 
the  Annunciation,  and  bases  its  claim  to  sanctity  on  that  es- 
pecial ground.  But  this  is  not  all :  even  should  either  con- 
sent to  surrender  something  of  this  peculiar  sacredness,  yet 
no  one  can  visit  both  sanctuaries  without  perceiving  that  by 
no  possibility  can  one  be  amalgamated  with  the  other.  The 
House  at  Loretto  is  an  edifice  of  thirty-six  feet  by  seventeen : 
its  walls,  though  externally  cased  in  marble,  can  be  seen  in 
their  original  state  from  the  inside,  and  these  appear  to  be  of 
a  dark  red  polished  stone.     The  west  wall  has  one  square  win- 


\\\\\yM& 


I'liiii  ^ih^m  §wm 


THE  MONKS   OF   LORETTO   AND   NAZAKETH.  447 

dow,  through  which  it  is  said  the  angel  flew ;  the  east  wall 
contains  a  rude  chimney,  in  front  of  which  is  a  mass  of  ce- 
mented stone,  said  to  be  the  altar  on  which  St.  Peter  said  mass, 
when  the  apostles,  after  the  ascension,  turned  the  house  into 
a  church.  On  the  north  side  is  (or  rather  was)  a  door,  now 
walled  up.  The  monks  of  Loretto  and  of  Nazareth  have  but 
a  dim  knowledge  of  the  sacred  localities  of  each  other.  Still, 
the  monks  of  Nazareth  could  not  be  altogether  ignorant  of 
the  mighty  sanctuary  which,  under  the  highest  authorities  of 
their  Church,  professes  to  have  once  rested  on  the  ground  they 
now  occupy.  They  show,  therefore,  to  any  traveler  who  takes 
the  pains  to  inquire,  the  space  on  which  the  Holy  House 
stood  before  its  flight.  That  space  is  a  vestibule  immediately 
in  front  of  the  sacred  grotto  ;  and  an  attempt  is  made  to  unite 
the  two  localities  by  supposing  that  there  were  openings  from 
the  house  into  the  grotto.  Without  laying  any  stress  on  the 
obvious  variation  of  measurements,  the  position  of  the  grotto 
is,  and  must  always  have  been,  absolutely  incompatible  with 
any  such  adjacent  building  as  that  at  Loretto.  Whichever 
way  the  house  is  supposed  to  abut  on  the  rock,  it  is  obvious 
that  such  a  house  as  has  been  described,  would  have  closed  up, 
with  blank  walls,  the  very  passages  by  which  alone  the  com- 
munication could  be  effected.  And  it  may  be  added,  that  al- 
though there  is  no  traditional  masonry  of  the  Santa  Casa  left 
at  Nazareth,  there  is  the  traditional  masonry  close  by  of  the 
so-called  workshop  of  Joseph  of  an  entirely  different  charac- 
ter. Whilst  the  former  is  of  a  kind  wholly  unlike  anything 
in  Palestine,  the  latter  is,  as  might  be  expected,  of  the  natural 
gray  limestone  of  the  country,  of  which  in  all  times,  no  doubt, 
the  houses  of  Nazareth  were  built. 

It  may  have  seemed  superfluous  labor  to  have  attempted 
any  detailed  refutation  of  the  most  incredible  of  Ecclesias- 
tical legends.  But  Loretto  is  so  emphatically  the  "Holy 
Place "  of  one  large  branch  of  Christendom — its  claim  has 
been  so  strongly  maintained  by  French  and  Italian  writers  of 
our  own  times — and  is,  moreover,  so  deeply  connected  with  the 


448  THE   ORIGIN   OF   MONASTIC   LEGENDS. 

alleged  authority  of  the  Papal  See — that  an  interest  attaches 
to  it  far  beyond  its  intrinsic  importance.  No  facts  are  insig- 
nificant which  bring  to  an  issue  the  general  value  of  local 
religion — or  the  assumption  of  any  particular  Church  to  the 
direct  conscience  of  the  world — or  the  amount  of  liberty 
within  such  a  Church  left  on  questions  which  concern  the 
faith  and  practice  of  thousands  of  its  members. 

But  the  legend  is  also  curious  as  an  illustration  of  the  his- 
tory of  "  Holy  Places "  generally.  It  is  difficult  to  say  how 
it  originated — or  what  led  to  the  special  selection  of  the 
Adriatic  Gulf  as  the  scene  of  such  a  fable ;  yet,  generally 
speaking,  the  explanation  is  easy  and  instn^ctive.  Nazareth 
was  taken  by  Sultan  Khalil  in  1291,  when  he  stormed  the 
last  refuge  of  the  Crusaders  in  the  neighboring  city  of  Acre. 
From  that  time,  not  Nazareth  only,  but  the  whole  of  Pales- 
tine, was  closed  to  the  devotions  of  Europe.  The  Crusad- 
ers were  expelled  from  Asia  and  in  Europe  the  sjjirit  of  the 
Crusades  was  extinct.  But  the  natural  longing  to  see  the 
scenes  of  the  events  of  the  Sacred  History — the  superstitious 
craving  to  win  for  prayer  the  favor  of  consecrated  localities — 
did  not  expire  with  the  Crusades.  Can  we  wonder  that,  under 
such  circumstances,  there  should  have  arisen  the  feeling,  the 
desire,  the  belief,  that  if  Mahomet  could  not  go  to  the  moun- 
tain, the  mountain  must  come  to  Mahomet  ?  The  House  of 
Loretto  is  the  petrifaction,  so  to  speak,  of  the  "  Last  sigh  of 
the  Crusades ; "  suggested  possibly  by  the  Holy  House  of  St. 
Francis  at  Assisi,  then  first  acquiring  its  European  celebrity. 
It  is  indeed  not  a  matter  of  conjecture  that  in  Italy — the 
country  where  the  passionate  temperament  of  the  people 
would  most  need  such  stimulants — ^persons  in  this  state  of  mind 
did  actually  endeavor,  so  far  as  circumstances  permitted,  to 
reproduce  the  scenes  of  Palestine  within  their  own  immediate 
neighborhood.  One  such  is  the  Canipo  Santo  of  Pisa — "  the 
Holy  Field,"  as  this  is  "  the  Holy  House  " — literally  a  cargo 
of  sacred  earth  from  the  Valley  of  Hinnom,  carried,  as  is  well 
known,  not  on  the  wings  of  angels,  but  in  the  ships  of  the 


INSTANCES  OF  HOLY  PLACES.  449 

Pisan  Crusaders.  •  Another  example  is  the  remarkable  Church 
of  St.  Stephen's,  at  Bologna,  withm  whose  walls  are  crowded 
together  various  chapels  and  courts,  representing  not  only,  as 
in  the  actual  Church  of  the  Sepulchre,  the  several  scenes  of 
the  Crucifixion,  but  the  Trial  and  Passion  also ;  and  which  is 
entitled,  in  a  long  inscription  affixed  to  its  cloister,  the 
"  Sancta  Sanctorum ; "  nay,  literally  "  the  Jerusalem  "  of  Italy. 
A  third  still  more  curious  instance  may  be  seen  at  Varallo,  in 
the  kingdom  of  Piedmont.  Bernardino  Caimo,  returning 
from  a  pilgrimage  to  Palestine  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  resolved  to  select  the  spot  in  Lombardy  most  resem- 
bling the  Holy  Land,  in  order  to  give  his  countrymen  the  ad- 
vantage of  praying  at  the  Holy  Place  without  undergoing  the 
privations  whieli  he  had  suffered  himself.  Accordingly,  in 
one  of  the  beautiful  valleys  leading  down  from  the  roots  of 
Monte  Rosa,  he  chose  (it  must  be  confessed  that  the  resem- 
blance is  of  the  slightest  kind)  three  hills,  which  should  rep- 
resent respectively  Tabor,  Olivet,  and  Calvary;  and  two 
mountain-streams,  which  should  in  like  manner  personate  the 
Kedron  and  Jordan.  Of  these  the  central  hill.  Calvary,  be- 
came the  "  Holy  Place  "  of  Lombardy.  It  was  frequented  by 
S.  Carlo  Borromeo;  under  his  auspices  the  whole  mountain 
was  studded  with  chapels,  in  which  the  scenes  of  the  Passion 
are  represented  in  waxen  figures  of  the  size  of  life ;  and  the 
whole  country  round  now  sends  its  peasants  by  thousands  as 
pilgrims  to  the  sacred  spot.  We  have  only  to  suppose  these 
feelings  existing  as  they  naturally  would  exist  in  a  more  fer- 
vid state  two  centuries  earlier,  when  the  loss  of  Palestine  was 
more  keenly  felt — when  the  capture  of  Nazareth  especially 
was  fresh  in  every  one's  mind — and  we  can  easily  imagine  that 
the  same  tendency,  which  by  deliberate  purpose  produced  a 
second  Jerusalem  at  Bologna  and  a  second  Palestine  at  Var- 
allo, would,  on  the  secluded  shores  of  the  Adriatic,  by  some 
peasant's  dream,  or  the  return  of  some  Croatian  chief  from 
the  last  Crusade,  or  the  story  of  some  Eastern  voyager  land- 
ing on  their  coasts,  produce  a  second  Nazareth  at  Fiume  and 


450  LEGENDS. 

Loretto.  What,  in  a  more  poetical  and  ignorant  age  was  ir, 
the  case  of  the  Holy  House  ascribed  to  the  hands  of  angels, 
was  actually  intended  by  Sixtus  V.  to  have  been  literally  ac- 
complished in  the  case  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  by  a  treaty  with 
the  Sublime  Porte  for  transferring  it  bodily  to  Rome,  so  that 
Italy  might  then  have  the  glory  of  possessing  the  actual  sites 
of  the  conception,  the  birth,  and  the  burial  of  our  Saviour. 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 

HOLT  PLACES  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT— (Continued.) 

Uniformity  of  Tradition  Regarding  the  Holy  Places — Growth  of  Legends  in 
Greece  and  Rome — Different  in  Jerusalem — The  Church  of  the  Ascension — 
Its  Antiquity— The  Church  Built  by  Helena— The  Cave  at  Bethlehem — The 
Mount  of  Olives — Church  of  the  Virgin — Garden  of  Gethsemane — Mount 
Zion — Mosque  of  the  Tomb  of  David — The  Coenaculum — The  Site  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre — Hadrian's  Temple — Tomb  of  Adam — The  Wall  of  Herod — 
Golgotha — Chapel  of  the  "  Invention  of  the  Cross  " — (-apernaum — The  Two 
Canas — Bethesda — The  Travels  of  St.  Paul — The  Fastnesses  of  Asia  Minor 
— The  Holy  Places  of  Greece — The  Character  of  New  Testament  Geography. 

I  HE  Holy  Places  which  cluster  within  and  around 
the  walls  of  Jerusalem  have  been  shown,  age  after 
age,  with  singular  uniformity.  Here  and  there  a 
tradition  has  been  misplaced  by  accident,  or  transposed  for 
convenience,  or  suppressed  in  fear  of  ridicule,  or,  it  may  be, 
from  sincere  doubts.  But,  on  the  whole,  what  was  shown  to 
Maundeville  in  the  fourteenth  century,  was  with  some  few 
omissions  shown  to  Maundrell  in  the  seventeeth,  and  what 
Maundrell  has  carefully  described  with  the  dry  humor  peculiar 
to  his  age,  may  still  be  verified  at  the  present  time.  Such 
localities  are  interesting  as  relics  of  the  period  when  for  the 
first  and  only  time  Palestine  became  a  European  province — 
as  the  scenes,  if  one  may  so  call  them,  of  some  of  the  most 
celebrated  works  of  European  art — as  the  fountain  heads  of 
some  of  the  most  extensive  of  European  superstitions.  No 
thoughtful  traveler  can  see  without  at  least  a  passing  emo-' 
tion  the  various  points  in  the  Via  Dolorosa,  which  have  been 
repeated  again  and  again  in  pictures  and  in  calvaries,  amidst 
the  blaze  of  gorgeous  colors,  and  on  the  sides  of  romantic 


VIA  DOLOROSA— JERUSALEM  WITH  THE  ARCH  OF  ECCE  HOMO. 
The  way  by  which  Christ  was  led  to  crucifixion. 


ORIGIN   OF   LEGENDS.  453 

hills  in  France  and  Italy ;  the  spot  where  Veronica  is  said  to 
have  received  the  sacred  cloth,  for  which  Lucca,  Turin,  and 
Rome  contend — the  threshold  where  is  believed  to  have  stood 
the  Scala  Santa,  worn  by  the  ceaseless  toil  of  Roman  pilgrims 
in  front  of  St.  John  Lateran.  There  is,  however,  one  feature 
•common  to  all  these  lesser  sanctities,  which  illustrates  the 
general  remarks  already  made  on  the  scenery  of  Palestine. 
There  are  some  countries,  such  as  Greece,  whose  natural  fea- 
tui-es — some  cities,  such  as  Rome,  whose  vast  ruins — lend  them- 
selves with  extraordinary  facility  to  the  growth  of  legends. 
The  stalactite  figures  of  the  Corycian  cave  at  once  explain  the 
origin  of  the  nymphs  who  are  said  to  have  dwelt  there.  The 
deserted  halls,  the  subterranean  houses,  the  endless  catacombs 
of  Rome,  afford  an  ample  field  for  the  localization  of  the  nu- 
merous persons  and  events  with  which  the  early  history  of  the 
Roman  Church  abounds.  But  in  Jerusalem  it  is  not  so.  Th& 
featureless  rocks  without  the  walls,  the  mere  dust  and  ashes 
within,  at  .once  repel  the  attempt  to  amalgamate  them  with 
the  fables  which,  by  the  very  fact  of  their  slight  and  almost 
imperceptible  connection  with  the  spots  in  question,  betray 
their  foreign  parentage.  A  fragment  of  old  sculpture  lying 
at  a  house  door  is  sufficient  to  mark  the  abode  of  Veronica ; 
a  broken  column,  separated  fi-om  its  companions  in  a  colonnade 
in  the  next  street,  is  pointed  out  as  that  to  which  the  decree 
of  Pilate  was  affixed,  or  on  which  the  cock  crew ;  a  faint  line 
on  the  surface  of  a  rock  is  the  mark  of  the  gudle  which  the 
virgin  dropped  to  convince  Thomas.  There  is  no  attempt  at 
fraud,  or  even  at  probability  ;  nothing  seems  to  have  been  too 
slight,  too  modern,  for  the  tradition  to  lay  hold  of  it.  Criti' 
cism  and  belief  are  alike  disarmed  by  the  child-like,  almost 
playful  spirit,  in  which  the  early  pilgrims  and  crusaders  must 
have  gone  to  and  fro,  seeking  for  places  here  and  there,  in 
which  to  locahze  the  dreams  of  their  own  imaginations. 

From  these — the  mere  sport  and  exuberance  of  monastic 
tradition — we  pass  to  the  more  important  of  the  sacred  locali- 
ties of  Jerusalem. 


464  CHURCH    OF   THE  ASCENSION. 

The  present  edifice  of  the  Church  of  the  Ascension  on  the 
top  of  Olivet  has  no  claims  to  antiquity.  It  Ls  a  small  octagon 
chapel  within  the  court  of  a  mosque,  the  minaret  of  wliich 
is  ascended  by  every  traveler  for  the  sake  of  its  celebrated 
view  over  Jerusalem  and  the  Dead  Sea.  Within  the  chapel 
is  the  rock  which  has  been  pointed  out  to  pilgrims,  at  least 
since  the  seventh  century,  as  imprinted  with  the  footstep  of 
our  Saviour.  There  is  no  spot  to  which  the  remarks  just 
made  may  be  more  joyfully  applied  respecting  the  slightness 
of  ground  on  which  these  lesser  traditions  rest.  It  would  be 
painfid  to  witness  any  mark  of  fraud,  or  even  any  trick  of 
nature,  in  connection  with  an  event  like  that  which  this  rock 
professes  to  commemorate.  Nothing  but  deep  rej^ulsion 
would  now  be  excited  were  there,  for  example,  any  such 
mark  as  that  which  is  shown  in  the  Chapel  of  Domine  Quo 
Vadis  at  Rome,  or  of  St.  Radegonde  at  Poitiers,  where  a  well- 
defined  foot-mark  in  the  stone  is  supposed  to  indicate  the  spot 
where,  in  those  two  places,  our  Saviour  appeared  to  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Radegonde.  Here  there  is  nothing  but  a  simple 
cavity  in  the  rock,  with  no  more  resemblance  to  a  human  foot 
than  to  anything  else.  It  must  have  been  sought  and  selected 
in  default  of  anything  better ;  it  could  never  either  have  been 
invented  or  have  suggested  the  connection. 

The  site  is  probably  ancient.  This  doubtless  is  "  the  top 
of  the  hill"  on  which  Helena  built  one  of  the  only  two 
churches  which  Eusebius  ascribes  to  her  (the  other  being,  as 
we  have  seen,  at  Bethlehem) — the  church  whose  glittering 
cross  first  caught  the  eye  of  the  pilgrims  who  approached  Je- 
rusalem from  the  south  and  west.  At  the  same  time  there  is 
one  circumstance  on  which  Eusebius  lays  great  stress,  and 
which  throws  a  new  light  on  the  special  object  for  which  this 
church  was  erected.  That  object,  he  tells  us,  as  at  Bethlehem, 
was  a  cave — a  cave,  as  he  further  adds,  in  which  "  a  true  tra- 
dition maintains  that  our  Lord  had  initiated  his  disciples  in  his 
secret  mysteries  "  before  the  ascension,  and  to  which,  on  that 
account,  pilgrimages  w'ere  in  his  time  made  from  all  parts  of 


.m.'m\,nti'Hm.,iii(\TOi, 


456  SITE  OF  iiklena's  church. 

the  Enqjire.  It  was  to  honor  this  cave,  which* Constan tine 
himself  also  adorned,  that  Helena  built  a  church  on  the  sum- 
mit of  the  mountain,  in  memory  of  the  Ascension.  The  cave 
to  which  Eusebius  refers  must  almost  certainly  be  the  same 
aig  that  singular  catacomb,  a  short  distance  below  the  third 
summit  of  Olivet,  commonly  called  the  Tombs  of  the  Proph- 
ets, and  fust  distinctly  noticed  by  Arculf  in  the  seventh 
century,  to  whom  were  shown  within  it  "four  stone  tables, 
where  our  Lord  and  the  Apostles  sate."  In  the  next  century 
the  same  "four  tables  of  His  Supper,"  were  shown  again  to 
Bernard  the  Wise,  who  speaks  of  a  church  being  erected  there 
to  commemorate  the  Betrayal.  From  tliat  period  it  remained 
unnoticed  till  attention  was  again  called  to  it  by  the  travelers 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  whose  time  it  had  assumed  its 
present  name,  which  it  has  borne  ever  since. 

It  is  clear  from  the  language  of  Eusebius  that  the  traditional 
s]3ot  which  Helena  meant  to  honor  was  not  the  scene  of  the 
Ascension  itself,  but  the  scene  of  the  conversations  before  the 
Ascension,  and  the  cave  in  which  they  were  believed  to  have 
occurred.  Had  this  been  clearly  perceived,  much  useless  con- 
troversy might  have  been  spared.  There  is  in  fact  no  proof 
from  Eusebius  that  any  tradition  pointed  out  the  scene  of  the 
Ascension.  Here  was  (as  usual)  the  tradition  of  the  cave^ 
and  nothing  besides.  Helena  fixed  upon  the  site  of  her  church, 
partly  from  its  commanding  position,  partly  from  its  vicinity 
to  the  cave.  The  contradiction  of  the  present  spot  to  the 
words  of  St.  Luke,  and  its  still  more  palpable  contradiction  to 
the  whole  character  of  the  scene  of  the  Ascension,  has  been 
already  pointed  out.  Even  if  the  Evangelist  had  been  less 
explicit  in  stating  that  He  led  them  out  "  as  far  as  Bethany  " 
— the  secluded  hills  which  overhang  that  village  on  the  east- 
ern slope  of  Olivet,  are  evidently  as  appropriate  to  the  whole 
tenor  of  the  narrative  as  the  startling,  the  almost  offensive  pub- 
licity of  the  traditional  spot  in  the  full  view  of  the  Avliole  city 
of  Jerusalem  is  wholly  inappropriate,  and  (in  the  absence,  as  it 
now  appears,  of  even  traditional  support)  w^holly  untenable. 


458  MOUNT   OF    OLIVES. 

There  arc  few  travelers  wliose  attention  has  not' been  arrest- 
ed, even  in  the  first  flush  of  tlie  ascent  of  Mount  Olivet,  by  the 
sight  of  a  venerable  chapel,  approached  by  a  flight  of  steps, 
which  lead  from  the  rocky  roots  of  Olivet,  on  which  it  stands, 
and  entered  by  yet  again  another  and  deeper  descent,  under 
the  low-browed  arches  of  a  gothic  roof,  producing  on  a  smaller 
scale  the  same  impression  of  awful  gloom  that  is  so  remark- 
able in  the  subterranean  Church  of  Assisi.  This  is  the  tra- 
ditional burial-place  of  the  Virgin.  "  You  must  know,"  says 
Maundeville,  "  that  this  church  is  very  low  in  the  earth,  and 
a  part  is  quite  within  the  earth.  But  I  imagine  that  it  was' 
not  founded  so;  but  since  Jerusalem  has  been  so  often  de- 
stroyed, and  the  walls  broken  down,  and  leveled  with  the  val- ' 
ley,  and  that  they  have  been  so  filled  again  and  the  ground 
raised,  for  that  reason  the  church  is  so  low  in  the  earth.  Nev- 
ertheless, men  say  there  commonly,  that  the  earth  hath  been 
so  ever  since  the  time  that  our  Lady  was  buried  there,  and 
men  also  say  there  that  it  grows  and  increases  every  day  with- 
out doubt."  Its  history  is  comparatively  recent.  It  is  not 
mentioned  by  Jerome  amongst  the  sacred  places  visited  by 
Paula.  And,  if  on  such  matters  the  authority  of  Councils  is 
supposed  to  have  any  weight,  the  tomb  of  the  Virgin  ought 
to  be  found,  not  at  Jerusalem,  but  at  Ephesus,  where  it  was 
placed  by  the  Third  Council.  But  even  the  authority  of  a 
General  Council  has  been  unable  to  hold  its  ground  against  the 
later  legend,  which  placed  her  death  and  burial  at  Jerusalem. 
Even  the  Greek  peasants  of  Ephesus,  though  still  pointing  to 
the  ruined  edifice  on  the  hights  of  Coressus,  as  the  tomb  of 
the  Panaghia,  have  been  taught  to  consider  it  the  tomb  of 
another  Panaghia  than  the  "  Theotocos,"  in  whom  their  great 
Council  exulted.  And  Greeks  and  Latins  unite  in  contending 
for  the  possession  of  the  rocky  sepulchre  at  the  foot  of  Oli- 
vet— ^the  scene,  in  the  belief  of  both  Churches,  of  that  "  As- 
sumption "  which,  in  our  later  ages,  has  passed  from  the  region 
of  poetry  and  devotion  into  a  sober  and  literal  doctrine. 

Close  beside  the  Church  of  the  Virgin  is  a  spot  which,  as 


GARDEN   OF   GETHSEMANE.  459 

it  is  omitted  in  Abbe  Michon's  catalogue  of  Holy  places,  might 
perhaps  have  been  passed  over  ;  yet  a  few  words,  and  perhaps 
the  fewer  the  better,  must  be  devoted  to  the  garden  of  Geth- 
semane.  That  the  tradition  reaches  back  to  the  age  of  Con- 
stantine  is  certain.  How  far  it  agrees  with  the  slight  indications 
of  its  position  in  the  Gospel  narrative  will  be  judged  by  the 
impressions  of  each  individual  traveler.  Some  will  think  it 
too  public ;  others  will  see  an  argument  in  its  favor  from  its 
close  proximity  to  the  brook  Kedron  ;  none,  probably,  will  be 
disposed  to  receive  the,  traditional  sites  which  surround  it,  the 
grotto  of  tlie  Agony,  the  rocky  bank  of  the  three  Apostles, 
the  "terra  damnata  "  of  the  Betrayal.  But,  in  spite  of  all 
the  doubts  that  can  be  raised  against  their  antiquity  or  the 
genuineness  of  their  site,  the  eight  aged  olive-trees,  if  only 
by  their  manifest  difference  from  all  others  on  the  mountain, 
have  always  struck  even  the  most  indifferent  observers. 
They  are  now  indeed  less  striking  in  the  modern  garden  en- 
closure built  round  them  by  the  Franciscan  monks,  than  when 
they  stood  free  and  unprotected  on  the  rough  hill-side ;  but 
they  will  remain,  so  long  as  their  already  protracted  life  is 
Si)ared,  the  most  venerable  of  their  race  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth ;  their  gnarled  trunks  and  scanty  foliage  will  always  be 
regarded  as  the  most  affecting  of  the  sacred  memorials  in  or 
about  Jerusalem ;  the  most  nearly  approaching  to  the  ever- 
lasting hills  themselves  in  the  force  with  wliich  they  carry  us 
back  to  the  events  of  the  Gospel  History. 

On  the  brow  of  the  hill  now  called  Mount  Zion,  a  conspic- 
uous minaret  is  pointed  out  from  a  distance  to  the  traveler 
approaching  Jerusalem  from  the  south,  as  marking  the  Mosque 
of  the  Tomb  of  David.  Within  the  precincts  of  that  mosque 
is  a  vaulted  gothic  chamber,  which  contains  within  its  fo.ur 
walls  a  greater  confluence  of  traditions  than  any  other  place 
of  like  dimensions  in  Palestine.  It  is  startling  to  hear  that 
this  is  the  scene  of  the  Last  Supper,  of  the  meeting  after  the 
Resurrection,  of  the  miracle  of  Pentecost,  of  the  residence 

and  death  of  the  Virgin,  of  the  burial  of  Stephen.     If  one 

28 


460  SITE   OF   THE   SEPULCHRE. 

might  hazard  a  conjecture  respecting  the  cause  of  such  a 
concentration  of  traditions,  some  of  them  dating  as  far  back 
as  the  fourth  century,  it  would  be  this.  We  know  from 
Cyril  and  Epiphanius  that  a  building  existed  on  this  spot, 
claiming  to  be  the  only  edifice  which  had  survived  the  over- 
throw of  the  city  by  Titus.  This  building  of  unknown  origin 
.would  naturally  serve  as  an  appropriate  receptacle  for  all  rec- 
ollections which  could  not  otherwise  be  attached  to  any  fixed 
locality.  There  is  one  circumstance  which,  if  proved,  would 
be  fatal  to  the  claims  of  the  "  Coenaculum."  It  stands  above 
the  vault  of  the  traditional  Tomb  of  David.  It  is  difficult  to 
trace  back  to  its  origin  this  belief,  which,  although  entertained 
by  Christians,  Jews,  and  Mussulmans  alike,  yet  has  given  the 
place  a  special  sanctity  only  in  the  eyes  of  the  last.  Possibly 
it  may  have  been  occasioned  by  a  misunderstanding  of  St. 
Peter's  words,  "  His  sepulchre  is  ivith  us  (sv  V^^)  until  this 
day  ;  "  according  •  to  which,  it  might  have  lieen  thought  that 
David's  Tomb  was  literally  in  the  midst  of  the  Pentecostal 
Assembly,  that  is,  in  the  chamber  now  shown  as  the  Ccenacu- 
lum.  At  any  rate,  it  is  impossible  to  support  both  claims  at 
once.  No  residence,  at  the  time  of  the  Christian  era,  could 
ever  have  stood  within  the  precincts  of  the  Royal  Sepulchre. 
We  now  approach  the  most  sacred  of  all  the  Holy  Places ; 
in  comparison  of  which,  if  genuine,  all  the  rest  sink  into  in- 
significance ;  the  interest  of  which,  even  if  not  genuine,  stands 
absolutely  alone  in  the  world.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  unravel 
the  tangled  controversy  of  the  identity  of  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre. Everything  which  can  be  said  against  that  identity  will 
be  found  in  the  Biblical  Researches  of  Dr.  Robinson — every- 
thing which  can  be  said  in  its  favor  will  be  found  in  the  Holy 
City  of  Mr.  Williams,  including,  as  it  does,  the  able  discussion 
on  the  architectural  history  of  the  church  by  Professor  Willis. 
It  is  enough  to  state  that  the  argument  mainly  turns  on  the 
solution  of  two  questions,  one  historical,  the  other  topographi- 
cal. The  historical  question  rests  on  the  value  of  the  tradi- 
tioa  that  the  spot  was  marked  before  the  time  of  Constantine 


■rriR  HuLY  sEPULciiu  i:. 


THE   SITE   OF   THE   HOLY   SEPUT.CHRE.  463 

by  a  temple  or  statue  of  Venus,  which  the  Emperor  Hadrian 
had  erected  in  order  to  pollute  a  spot  already  in  his  time  re- 
garded as  sacred  by  the  Christians.  The  topographical  question 
is,  whether  the  present  site  can  be  proved  to  have  stood  with- 
out the  walls  of  Jerusalem'  at  the  time  of  the  Crucifixion. 
On  the  historical  question  the  advocates  of  the  identity  of  the 
Sepulchre  never  have  fairly  met  the  difficulty,  that  it  is  hardly 
conceivable  that  Hadrian  could  have  had  any  motive  in  such 
a  purpose,  when  his  whole  object  in  establishing  his  new  city 
of  ^lia  was  to  insult  not  the  Christians,  but  the  Jews,  from 
whom,  in  Palestine  at  that  time,  the  Christians  were  emphati- 
cally divided.  And  it  is  at  least  curious  that  to  the  corres- 
ponding tradition  respecting  Hadrian's  temple  of  Adonis  at 
Bethlehem,  there  is  no  allusion  whatever  by  Justin,  or  by 
Origen,  though  speaking  of  the  very  cave  in  which  the  Pagan 
temple  is  said  to  have  been  erected,  and  within  a  century  of 
the  time  of  its  erection.  In  the  topographical  question,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  opponents  of  the  identity  of  the  Sepul- 
chre have  never  done  justice  to  the  argument  first  clearly 
stated  in  England  by  Lord  Nugent,  and  pointedly  brought  out 
by  Professor  Willis, 'which  is  derived  from  the  so-called  tombs 
of  Josej)h  and  Nicodemus.  Underneath  the  western  galleries 
of  the  church,  behind  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  are  two  excava- 
tions in  the  face  of  the  rock,  forming  an  ancient  Jewish  Sep- 
ulchre as  clearly  as  any  that  can  be  seen  in  the  Valley  of 
Hinnom  or  in  the  Tombs  of  the  Kings.  That  they  should 
have  been  so  long  overlooked  both  by  the  advocates  and  op-" 
ponents  of  the  identity  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  can  only  be 
accounted  for  by  the  perverse  dullness  of  the  conventual 
guides  of  the  church,  who  point  the  attention  of  travelers  and 
pilgrims,  not  to  those  sepulchres,  but  to  two  graves  sunk  in 
the  floor  in  front  of  them — possibly,  like  similar  excavations 
in  the  rocky  floors  at  Petra,  of  ancient  origin — possibly,  how- 
ever, as  Dr.  Schulz  suggests,  dug  at  a  later  time  to  represent 
the  graves,  when  the  real  object  of  the  ancient  sepulchres  had 
ceased  to  be  intelligible — just  as  the  tombs  of  some  Mussul- 


464  THE   SCE>)E    OF   THE   CRUCIFIXION. 

man  saints  are  fictitious  tombs  erected  over  the  rude  sepul- 
chres hewn  in  the  rock  beneath.  The  traditional  names  of 
Joseph  and  Nicodemus  are  of  course  valueless.  But  the  ex- 
istence of  these  sepulchres  proves  almost  to  a  certainty  that 
at  some  period  the  site  of  the  present  church  must  have  been 
outside  the  walls  of  the  city,  and  lends  considerable  proba- 
bility to  the  belief  that  the  rocky  excavation,  which  perhaps 
exists  in  part  still,  and  certainly  once  existed  entire,  within 
the  marble  casing  of  the  chapel  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  was 
at  any  rate  a  really  ancient  tomb,  and  not,  as  is  often  rashly 
asserted,  a  modern  structure  intended  to  imitate  it.  One  fur- 
ther point  deserves  consideration.  The  tradition  that  Adam 
or  Adam's  skull  was  buried  in  Golgotha  seems  anterior  to  the 
tradition  of  the  Sepulchre  itself.  It  was  suggested  by  Dr.  ■ 
Clarke  that  the  curious  cavity  still  shown  as  the  site  of  that 
burial-place  may  have  been  the  center  of  the  whole  story. 
It  is,  at  any  rate,  remarkable  that  this  should  have  been  the 
only  traditional  spot  in  connection  with  the  Crucifixion  pointed 
out  in  the  third  century. 

Farther  than  this  in  our  present  state  of  knowledge  no 
merely  topographical  consideration  can  bring  us.  Even  though 
these  tombs  prove  the  site  to  have  been  outside  some  wall, 
they  do  not  prove  that  wall  to  have  been  the  wall  of  Herod : 
it  may  have  been  the  earlier  wall  of  the  ancient  monarchy ; 
and,  even  though  it  be  outside  the  wall  of  Herod,  this  only 
proves  the  possibility — not  even  the  probability — of  its  iden- 
•tity  with  the  scene  of  the  Crucifixion.  And  the  question 
whether  the  wall  of  Herod  really  ran  so  as  just  to  exclude  or 
just  to  include  the  present  site,  must  dej)end  for  its  solution 
on  such  excavations  under  the  accumulated  ruins  of  ages  as 
are  now  impossible,  but  will  doubtless  in  some  future  day 
clear  up  the  topography  of  ancient  Jerusalem,  as  they  have  in 
the  analogous  case  of  Rome,  cleared  up  beyond  all  previous 
expectation,  the  topography  of  the  Forum.  But,  granting  to 
the  full  the  doubts  which  must  always  hang  over  the  highest 
claims  of  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre,  no  thoughtful  man 


J^i    -  ^    ^?^'*''-r/^§9-:?^ 


JEWS'    PLACE    OF    WAILING. 


466  THE   SITE   OF   GOLGOTHA. 

can  look  unmoved  on  Avhat  has,  from  tlie  time  of  Constantine, 
been  revered  by  the  larger  part  of  the  Christian  world  as  the 
scene  of  the  greatest  events  of  the  world's  history,  and  has 
itself  in  time  become,  for  that  reason,  the  center  of  a  second 
cycle  of  evehts  of  incomparably  less  magnitude,  indeed,  but 
yet  of  an  interest  in  the  highest  degree  romantic.  It  may  be 
too  much  to  expect  that  inquiring  travelers,  who  see  the  nec- 
essary uncertainty  of  the  whole  tradition,  should  be  al;le  to  par- 
take of  those  ardent  feelings  which  even  a  skeptical  observer 
like  Dr.  Clarke  acknowledges,  in  that  striking  passage  which 
describes  the  entrance  of  himself  and  his  companions  into  the 
Chapel  of  the  Sepulchre.  But  its  later  associations  may  be 
felt  by  every  student  of  history  without  fear  of  superstition 
or  irreverence. 

Look  at  it  as  its  site  was  first  fixed  by  Constantine  and  his 
mother.  Whether  Golgotha  were  here  or  far  away,  there  is 
no  question  that  we  can  still  trace  the  sweep  of  the  rocky  hill, 
in  the  face  of  which  the  Sepulclire  stood,  as  they  first  beheld 
it.  For  if  the  rough  limestone  be  disputed,  which  some  main- 
tain can  still  be  felt  in  the  interior  of  the  Chapel  of  the  Sep- 
ulchre, there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  rock  which  contains  the 
"  tombs  of  Joseph  and  Nicodemus ; "  none  of  that  which  in 
the  "prison"  and  in  the  "  entombment  of  Adam's  head  "  marks 
the  foot  of  the  cliff  of  the  present  Golgotha ;  or  of  that  which 
is  seen  at  its  summit  in  the  so-called  fissure  of  the  "rocks  rent 
by  the  earthquake ; "  none,  lastly,  of  that  through  which  a 
long  descent  conducts  the  pilgrim  to  the  subterraneous  chaj)el 
of  the  "Invention  of  the  Cross."  In  all  these  places  enough 
can  be  seen  to  show  what  the  natural  features  of  the  places 
must  have  been  before  the  "ingenious  rock"  had  been  "vio- 
lated by  the  marble "  of  Constantine ;  enough  to  show  that 
the  church  is  at  least  built  on  the  native  hills  of  the  old  Je- 
rusalem." 

A  great  deal  of  obscurity  exists  regarding  places  of  great 
interest  in  the  New  Testament.  It  would  appear  that  special 
care  has  been  taken  by  the  Almighty  that  we  should  not  fall 


ALL  THAT  REMAINS  OF  CAPERNAUM. 


4G8  CONTESTED   PLACES. 

into  the  peril  of  oflfering  a  kind  of  idolatry  to  the  places  where 
such  great  events  occurred,  and  that  in  pure  kindness  to  us, 
many  sacred  sites  are  now  known  only  by  conjecture. 
Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the  place  where  John  the 
Bai)tist  died  at  the  hands  of  Herod,  and  the  places  "  Enon 
near  Salim"  and  "Bethabara  beyond  Jordan"  where  he  loved 
to  baptize  his  followers.  Capernaum  was,  beyond  question,  on 
the  north-western  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  but  it  is  not 
yet  quite  moved  from  the  field  of  controversy  at  just  what 
point  it  was,  although  it  is  claimed  as  almost  certain  by  sev- 
eral travelers,  and  on  a  previous  page  of  this  work  will  be 
found  an  engraving  of  "-all  the  remains  of  Capernaum." 
Still  scholars  know  that  still  a  vexed  controversy  still  goes  on, 
and  the  solution  is  not  likely  to  be  reached  yet.  So  too  re- 
garding Cana,  where  Jesus  turned  the  water  into  wine.  There 
are  two  places,  both  Canas,  which  contend  for  this  honor. 
The  geography  of  Bethsaida  is  not  yet  placed  bej^ond  ques- 
tion, and  it  would  be  possible  to  fill  a  large  work  with  the 
various  arguments  which  have  been  urged  by  disputants  in 
the  field  of  New  Testament  geography  alone.  Yet  it  is  an 
unprofitable  field,  and  one  on  which  we  wUl  not  essay  to  enter. 
The  publication  of  a  work  so  generally  known  as  Cony- 
beare  and  Howson's  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  renders  it 
inexpedient  to  attempt  to  trace  the  journeyings  of  that  great 
man  from  his  birth-place  in  Tarsus  to  his  dungeon  in  Rome, 
where  he  passed  the  last  months  of  his  busy  and  godly  career. 
A  whole  volume  would  be  required  to  do  justice  to  the  geog- 
raphy of  the  book  of  Acts.  The  scenery  lies  very  largely 
outside  of  Palestine  and  the  countries  which,  in  a  certain  well 
understood  sense,  we  call  Biblical.  We  are  taken  through  the 
wUd  and  mountainous  fastnesses  of  Asia  Minor,  into  nearly  all 
those  cities  which  were  then  so  opulent,  and  now  so  desolate, 
Smyrna,  being  almost  the  only  one  which  remains  of  them  all ; 
we  are  taken  across  the  jEgean  to  the  wonder  land  of  Greece ; 
"we  see  its  classic  Athens,  its  opulent  and  voluptuous  Corinth, 
and  many  other  of  its  well-known  cities,  and  so  even  in  the 


470  ITALY  AI^D   ROME. 

New  Testament  Greece,  classic  Greece,  becomes  better  known 
to  the  mass  of  our  readers,  than  even  through  the  pages  of 
the  Grecian  authors  themselves. 

But  not  Greece  alone,  but  Italy  enters  into  the  story  of  the 
great  Apostle's  journeyings.  Yet  it  would  be  vain  to  regard 
Italy  as  a  Biblical  land ;  and  inasmuch  as  the  learned  Cony- 
beare  and  Howson  have  done  so  exhaustively  what  they  have 
attempted,  and  inasmuch  as  publishers  have  vied  in  making 
their  work  the  possession  of  all  readers,  it  would  be  vain  to 
attempt  to  follow  them,  in  a  work  whose  main  purpose  has 
been  to  elucidate  the  geography  of  the  Old  Testament.  The 
story  of  St.  Paul's  wonderful  voyage  has  also  been  often  told. 
Step  by  step  he  has  been  followed  ;  and  even  Crete  and  Malta 
have  been  carefully  explored  for  the  purpose  of  learning  all 
the  details  which  can  throw  light  upon  his  journey  to  Rome. 

And  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  perhaps,  that  Rome  itself 
owes  as  much  to  its  Biljlical  as  to  its  secularly  classical  inter- 
est. Few  go  to  Rome  who  do  not  explore  quite  as  inquisi- 
tively the  palace  of  the  Csesars  as  they  do  the  views  of  the 
Forum  ;  and  even  the  beautiful  Arch  of  Titus  owes  as  much 
of  its  charm  to  the  sculptured  representation  of  the  conquer- 
ing hero  leading  away  the  Jews  from  Jerusalem,  with  the  sa- 
cred vessels  from  the  temple  in  their  hands,  as  it  does  to  the 
record  of  other  triumphs.  The  Catacombs  which  wind  their 
dark  way  beneath  the  city,  would  be  much  more  highly  and 
generally  enjoyed,  were  they  accessible,  than  are  the  proudest 
monuments  of  heathen  art  which  have  come  down  to  us;  and 
all  the  dim  and  faded  stories  of  the  early  martyrs  of  Rome 
have  conferred  on  the  Eternal  City  a  renown  which,  in  the 
eyes  of  most  readers  and  travelers,  is  far  hner  than  the  proud- 
est legends  of  the  classic  era.  It  were  greatly  to  be  desired 
that  a  volume  be  prepared  which  should  place  our  great  read- 
ing public  in  possession  of  the  monuments  of  what  may  be 
called  the  Christian  Rome  of  Antiquity ;  such  a  work  would 
show  us  that  that  beautiful  city. derives  a  large  part  of  its 
great  interest  from  its  connection  with  the  Christian  Faith. 


RUINS  OF  THE  PALACE  OF  THE  CESARS. 


472  NEW   TESTAMENT   GEOGRAPHY. 

Aside  from  the  book  of  Acts  and  the  story  of  our  Lord, 
there  remains  but  little  in  the  New  Testament  whicli  requires 
geof!jrapIiieal  elucidation.  The  book  grows  more  and  more 
spiritual  from  first  to  last,  and  we  who  wish  and  demand  to 
know  what  and  where  were  Bethlehem  and  Nazareth,  grow 
more  and  more  indifferent  to  places  as  we  advance.  The 
places  to  which  those  epistles  were  directed  do  indeed  awaken 
a  little  curiosity,  but  the  story  of  St.  Paul's  life  and  wanderings 
generally  places  us  in  possession  of  that  slight  geographical 
knowledge  which  is  needed  to  understand  his  letters.  The 
old  Jerusalem  gives  place  to  the  New  Jerusalem ;  and  although 
its  geography  is  so  fully  dehneated  in  the  Apocalypse  of  St. 
John,  yet  it  requires  no  aid  from  our  maps  of  what  we  call 
Holy  Land.  But  from  Eden  to  Patmos,  there  is  no  place 
where  we  imperatively  require  the  aid  of  human  travel  and 
observation  but  it  has  been  given  us.  Where  the  Bible  is  its 
own  interpreter,  and  needs  only  spiritual  discernment  to  read 
it  aright,  there  geography  does  little  or  nothing  for  the  reader  ; 
but  where  the  story  needs  to  be  read  by  the  light  of  travel 
and  research,  in  order  that  the  spiritual  side  may  be  appre- 
hended, there  the  good  Father  has  not  failed  us,  but  has 
given  us  all  the  light  we  need. 


POOL  OF  SILOAM. 
Lying  just  under  the  overshadowing  walls  of  Jerusalem.    The  eyes  of  a  man  who 
was  born  blind,  having  been  anointed  with  clay  by  our  Lord,  he  was  sent  to  this  place 
to  wash,  in  order  that  he  might  receive  his  sight. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

PALESTINE,  ITS  ASPECT  AND  SITUATION. 

BY   A.    P.    STANLEY,    DEAN   OF    WESTMINSTER    ABBEY. 

The  Highlands  of  Syria — Lebanon  —  The  Four  Rivers  of  Palestine  —  The 
Orontes — Tiie  Litany — The  Barada — The  Jordan— Physical  Conformation 
of  Palestine — Seclusion  from  the  rest  of  the  Ancient  World — Smallness  and 
Narrow  Territory — Central  Situation — A  Land  of  Ruins. 

ETWEEN  the  great  plains  of  Assyria  and  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  a  high  mountain  tract  is 
interposed,  reaching  from  the  Bay  of  Issiis  to  the 
Desert  of  Arabia.  Of  this  the  northern  part,  which  consists 
of  the  ranges  known  in  ancient  geograj)hy  under  the  names 
of  Amanus  and  Casius,  and  which  includes  rather  more  than 
half  the  tract  in  question,  is  not  within  the  limits  of  the  Holy 
Land;  and,  though  belonging  to  the  same  general  elevation, 
is  distinguished  from  the  southern  division  by  strongly  marked 
peculiarities,  and  only  enters  into  the  sacred  history  at  a  later 
time,  when  its  connection  with  any  local  scenes  was  too  slight 
to  be  worth  dwelling  upon  in  detail.  It  is  with  the  southern 
division  that  we  are  now  concerned. 

The  range  divides  itself  twice  over  into  two  parallel  chains. 
There  is  first,  the  main  chain  of  Lebanon,  separated  by  the 
broad  valley  commonly  called  Coele-Syria ;  the  western  moun- 
tain reaching  its  highest  termination  in  the  northern  point  of 
Lebanon ;  the  eastern,  in  the  southern  point  of  Hermon. 
This  last  point — itself  the  loftiest  summit  of  the  whole  range 
— again  breaks  into  two  ranges,  of  which  the  western,  with 
the  exception  of  one  broad  depression,  extends  as  far  as  the 


RIVERS   OF   PALESTINE.  475 

Desert  of  Sinai ;  the  eastern,  as  far  as  the  mountains  of  Ara- 
bia Petrsea.  From  this  chain,  flow  four  rivers  of  unequal 
magnitude,  on  wftich,  at  different  times,  have  sprung  up  the 
four  ruling  powers  of  that  portion  of  Asia.  Lebanon  is,  in 
this  respect,  a  likeness  of  that  primeval  paradise  to  which  its 
local  traditions  have  always  endeavored  to  attach  themselves. 
The  northern  river,  rising  from  the  fork  of  the  two  ranges 
of  Lebanon  and  Anti-Lebanon,  and  forming  the  channel  of 
life  and  civilization  in  that  northern  division  of  which  we 
have  just  spoken,  is  the  Orontes, — the  river  of  the  Greek 
'kingdom  of  Antioch  and  Seleucia.  The  western,  is  the  Lit- 
any, rising  from  the  same  water-shed  between  the  two  ranges, 
near  Baalbec,  and  falling  into  the  Mediterranean,  close  to 
Tyre,  —  the  river  of  Phoenicia.  The  eastern,  rising  from 
Anti-Lebanon  and  joined  by  one  or  two  lesser  streams,  is  the 
modern  Barada,  the  Abana  or  Pharpar  of  the  Old  Testament 
— the  river  of  the  Sj^ian  kingdom  of  Damascus.  The  king- 
doms which  have  risen  in  the  neighborhood  or  on  the  banks 
of  these  rivers,  have  flourished  not  simultaneously,  but  suc- 
cessively. The  northern  kingdom  was  the  latest,  and  is  only 
brought  into  connection  with  the  Sacred  History,  as  being 
that  from  which  the  "Kingfe  of  the  North"  made  their  de- 
scent upon  Palestine,  and  in  which  were  afterwards  founded 
the  first  Gentile  churches.  It  was,  as  it  were,  the  halting- 
place  of  Christianity,  before  it  finally  left  its  Asiatic  home — 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  Holy  Land,  yet  not  in  another  coun- 
try or  climate ;  naturally  resting  on  the  banks  of  the  Oron- 
tes, on  the  way  from  the  valley  of  the  Jordan,  before  (to  use 
the  Roman  poet's  expression  in  another  and  better  sense) 
it  joined  "the  flow  of  the  Orontes  into  the  Tiber."  The 
eastern  kingdom  of  t)amascus  on  one  side,  the  western  king- 
dom of  Phoenicia  on  the  other,  claim  a  nearer  connection  with 
the  history  of  the  chosen  people  from  first  to  last ;  the  one, 
as  the  great  opening  of  communication  with  the  distant  east- 
ern deserts,  the  other  with  the  Mediterranean  coasts.  The 
fourth  and  southern  river,  which  rises  at  the  point  where 


476  THE   JORDAN. 

Hermon  splits  into  its  two  parallel  ranges,  is  the  river  of 
Palestine — the  Jordan. 

The  Jordan,  with  its  manifold  peeuliai4ties,  must  be  re- 
served for  the  time  when  we  come  to  si)cak  of  it  in  detail. 
Yet  it  must  be  remembered  throughout,  that  this  river,  the 
artery  of  the  whole  country,  is  unique  on  the  surface  of  the 
globe.  The  ranges  of  the  Lebanon  are  remarkable ;  the 
courses  of  the  Orontes,  the  Leontes,  and  the  Barada,  are  cu- 
rious ;  but  the  deep  depression  of  the  Jordan  has  absolutely 
no  parallel.  No  other  valley  in  the  world  presents  such  ex- 
traordinary physical  features,  none  has  been  the  subject  of- 
such  various  theories  as  to  its  origin  and  character.  How  far 
this  strange  conformation  of  the  Holy  Land  has  had  any  ex- 
tensive influence  on  its  history  may  be  doubtful.  But  it  is, 
perhaps,  worth  observing  at  the  outset,  that  we  are  in  a  coun- 
try, of  which  the  geograi)hy  and  the  history  each  claims  to  be 
singular  of  its  kind : — the  history,  by  its  own  records,  uncon- 
scious, if  one  may  so  say,  of  the  physical  peculiarity;  the 
geography,  by  the  discoveries  of  modern  science,  wholly  with- 
out regard,  perhaps  even  indifferent  or  hostile,  to  the  claims 
of  the  history.  Such  a  coincidence  may  be  accidental ;  but, 
at  least,  it  serves  to  awaken  the  curiosity,  and  strike  the  im- 
agination ;  at  least,  it  lends  dignity  to  the  country,  where 
the  earth  and  the  man  are  thus  alike  objects  of  wonder  and 
investigation. 

It  is  around  and  along  this  deep  fissure  that  the  hills  of 
western  and  eastern  Palestine  spring  uj),  forming  the  link  be- 
tween the  high  group  of  Lebanon  on  the  north,  and  the  high 
group  of  Sinai  on  the  south  ;  forming  the  mountain-bridge,  or 
isthmus,  between  the  ocean  of  the  Assyrian  Desert,  and  the 
ocean  (as  it  seemed  to  the  ancient  world)  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, or  "Great  Sea"  on  the  west.  On  the  one  side  of  the 
Jordan  these  hills  present  a  mass  of  green  pastures  and  for- 
ests melting  away,  on  the  east  into  the  red  plains  of  Hauran. 
On  the  other  side  they  form  a  mass  of  gray  rock  rising  above 
the  yellow  desert  on  the  south,  bounded  on  the  west  by  the 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   THE   ISRAELITES.  477 

long,  green  strip  of  the  maritime  plain ;  cut  asunder  on  the 
north  by  the  rich  plain  of  Esdraelon ;  rising  again  beyond 
Esdraelon  into  the  wild  scenery  of  mountain  and  forest  in  the 
roots  of  Lebanon. 

Each  of  these  divisions  has  a  name,  a  character,  and,  to  a 
certain  extent,  a  history  of  its  own,  which  will  best  appear  as 
we  proceed.  But  there  are  features  more  or  less  common  to 
the  whole  country,  especially  to  that  portion  of  it  which  has 
been  the  chief  seat  of  the  national  life ;  and  these,  so  far  as 
they  illustrate  the  general  history,^  must  be  now  considered. 

"The  Vine"  was  "brought  out  of  Egypt;"  what  was  the 
land  in  which  God  "prepared  room  before  it,  and  caused 
it  to  take  deep  root,"  and  "  cover  the  '  mountains '  with  its 
shadow  ?  " 

The  peculiar  characteristic  of  the  Israelite  people,  whether 
as  contemplated  from  their  own  sacred  records,  or  as  viewed 
by  their  Gentile  neighbors,  was  that  they  were  a  nation  se- 
cluded, set  apart,  from  the  rest  of  the  world ;  "  haters,"  it  was 
said,  "of  the  human  race,"  and  hated  by  it  in  return.  la 
there  anything  in  the  physical  structure  and  situation  of  their 
country  which  agrees  with  this  peculiarity?  Look  at  its 
boundaries.  The  most  important  in  this  respect  will  be  that 
on  the  east.  For  in  that  early  time,  when  Palestine  first  fell 
to  the  lot  of  the  chosen  people,  the  East  w^as  still  the  world. 
The  great  empires  w^iich  rose  on  the  plains  of  Mesopotamia, 
the  cities  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  were  literally  then, 
what  Babylon  is  metaphorically  in  the  Apocalypse,  the  rulers 
and  corrupters  of  all  the  Idngdoms  of  the  earth.  Between 
these  great  empires  and  the  people  of  Israel,  two  obstacles 
were  interposed.  The  first  was  the  eastern  desert,  which 
formed  a  barrier  in  front  even  of  the  outposts  of  Israel — the 
nomadic  tribes  on  the  east  of  the  Jordan  ;  the  second,  the  vast 
fissure  of  the  Jordan  valley,  which  must  always  have  acted  as 
a  deep  trench  within  the  exterior  rampart  of  the  desert  and 
the  eastern  hills  of  the  Trans-Jordanic  tribes. 

Next  to  the  Assyrian  empire  in  strength  and  power,  supe- 


478  COAST   LINE   OF   PALESTINE. 

rior  to  it  in  arts  and  civilization,  was  Egypt.  What  was  there 
on  the  southern  boundary  of  Palestine,  to  secure  that  "  the 
Egyptians  wliom  they  saw  on  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea,  they 
should  see  no  more  again  ?  "  Up  to  the  very  frontier  of  their 
own  land  stretched  that  "great  and  terrible  wilderness," 
Avhich  rolled  like  a  sea  between  the  valley  of  the  Nile  and 
the  valley  of  the  Jordan.  And  this  wilderness  itself — the 
platform  of  the  Tih — could  be  only  reached  on  its  eastern 
side  by  the  tremendous  pass  of  Akaba  at  the  southern,  and 
of  Safeh  at  the  northern^nd  of  the  Arabah.  On  these,  the 
two  most  important  frontiers,  the  separation  was  most  com- 
plete. 

The  two  accessible  sides  were  the  west  and  the  north.  But 
the  west  was  only  accessible  by  sea,  and  when  Israel  first  set- 
tled in  Palestine,  the  Mediterranean  was  not  yet  the  thorough- 
fare— it  was  rather  the  boundary  and  the  terror  of  the  eastern 
nations.  It  is  true  that  from  the  north-western  coast  of  Syria, 
the  Phoenician  cities  sent  forth  their  fleets.  But  they  were 
the  exception  of  the  world,  the  discoverers,  the  first  explorers 
of  the  unknown  depths, — and  in  their  enterprises  Israel  never 
joined.  In  strong  contrast,  too,  with  the  coasts  of  Europe, 
and  especiall}^  of  Greece,  Palestine  has  no  indentations,  no 
winding  creeks,  no  deep  havens,  such  as  in  ancient,  even  more 
than  in  modern  times,  were  necessary  for  the  invitation  and 
protection  of  commercial  enterprise.  One  long  line,  broken 
only  by  the  bay  of  Acre,  containing  only  three  bad  harbors, 
Joppa,  Acre,  and  Caipha — and  the  last  unknown  in  ancient 
times — ^is  the  inhospitable  front  that  Palestine  opposed  to  the 
western  world.  On  the  northern  frontier  the  ranges  of  Leb- 
anon formed  two  not  insignificant  ramparts.  But  the  gate  be- 
tween them  was  open,  and  through  the  long  valley  of 
Coele-Syria,  the  hosts  of  S}Tian  and  Assyrian  conquerors 
accordingly  poured.  These  were  the  natural  fortifications  of 
that  vineyard  which  was  "  hedged  round  about "  with  tower 
and  trench,  sea  and  desert,  against  the  "boars  of  the  wood," 
and  "  the  beast  of  the  field." 


SMALL   SIZE   OF   PALESTINE.  479 

In  Palestine,  as  in  Greece,  every  traveler  is  struck  with  the 
smallness  of  the  territory.  He  is  surprised,  even  after  all 
that  he  has  heard,  at  passing,  in  one  long  day,  from  the  capi- 
tal of  Judaea  to  that  of  Samaria ;  or  at  seeing  within  eight 
hours,  three  such  spots,  as  Hebron,  Bethlehem,  and  Jerusa- 
lem. The  breadth  of  the  country  from  the  Jordan  to  the  sea 
is  rarely  more  than  fifty  miles.  Its  length  from  Dan  to  Beer- 
sheba  is  about  a  hundred  and  eighty  miles.  The  time  is  now 
gone  by,  when  the  grandeur  of  a  country  is  measured  by  its 
size,  or  the  diminutive  extent  of  an  illustrious  people  can 
otherwise  than  enhance  the  magnitude  of  what  they  have 
done.  The  ancient  taunt,  however,  and  the  facts  which  sug- 
gested it,  may  still  illustrate  the  feeling  which  appears  in  their 
own  records.  The  contrast  between  the  littleness  of  Palestine 
and  the  vast  extent  of  the  empires  which  hung  upon  its  north- 
ern and  southern  skirts,  is  rarely  absent  from  the  mind  of  the 
Prophets  and  Psalmists.  It  helps  them  to  exalt  their  sense 
of  the  favor  of  God  towards  their  land  by  magnifying  their 
little  hills  and  dry  torrent-beds  into  an  equality  with  the  giant 
hills  of  Lebanon  and  Hermon  and  the  sea-like  rivers  of  Meso- 
potamia. It  also  fosters  the  consciousness,  that  they  were  not 
always  to  be  restrained  within  these  earthly  barriers — "  The 
place  is  too  strait  for  me ;  give  me  place  where  I  may  dwell." 
Nor  is  it  only  the  smallness,  but  the  narrowness,  of  the  terri- 
tory which  is- remarkable.  From  almost  every  high  point  in 
the  country,  its  whole  breadth  is  visible,  from  the  long  wall 
of  the  Moab  hills  on  the  east,  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea  on  the 
west.  Whatever  may  be  the  poverty  or  insignificance  of  the 
landscape,  it  is  at  oace  relieved  by  a  glimpse  of  either  of 
these  two  boundaries. 

"  Two  voices  are' there — one  is  of  the  sea, 
One  of  the  mountains," — 

and  the  close  proximity  of  each — the  deep  purple  shade  of 
the  one,  and  the  glittering  waters  of  the  other — makes  it  al- 
ways possible  for  one  or  other  of  those  two  voices  to  be  heard 


480  ISOLATION  OF  PAUESTDTE. 

now,  as  they  were  by  the  Psalmist  of  old.  "  The  strength  of 
the  ''mountains^  is  liis  also — the  sea  is  his,  and  He  made  it." 
Thus,  although  the  Israelites  were  shut  off  by  the  southern 
and  eastern  deserts  from  the  surrounding  nations,  they  yet 
were  ahvays  able  to  look  beyond  themselves.  They  had  no 
connection  with  either  the  eastern  empires  or  the  western 
isles — ^but  they  could  not  forget  them.  As  in  the  words  and 
forms  of  their  worship  they  were  constantly  reminded  how 
they  had  once  been  strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt ;  so  the 
sight  of  the  hills  beyond  the  Jordan,  and  of  the  sea  beyond 
the  Philistine  plain,  were  in  their  daily  life  a  memorial  that 
they  were  there  secluded  not  for  their  own  sakes,  but  for  the 
sake  of  the  world  in  whose  center  they  were  set.  The  moun- 
tains of  Gilead,  and  on  the  south,  the  long  ridges  of  Arabia, 
were  at  hand  to  remind  them  of  those  distant  regions  from 
which  their  first  fathers,  Abraham  and  Jacob,  had  wandered 
into  the  country, — from  which  "the  camels  and  dromedaries 
of  Midian  and  Ephah  "  were  once  again  to  pour  in.  The  sea, 
whitening  then  as  now  with  the  ships  of  Tarshish,  the  outline 
of  Chittim  or  Cyprus  just  visible  in  the  clear  evening  horizon, 
must  have  told  them  of  the  western  world  where  lay  the  "isles 
of  the  Gentiles,"  which  "  should  come  to  their  light,  and  kings 

to  the  brightness  of  their  rising Who  are  these  that 

fly  as  a  cloud,  and  as  the  doves  to  their  windows?  Surely 
the  isles  shall  wait  for  me,  and  the  ships  of  Tarshish  first." 
The  very  name  of  the  "west"  was  to  them  "the  sea;"  and 
it  is  not  merely  a  poetic  image,  but  a  natural  reflex  of  their 
whole  history  and  situation,  that  the  great  revelation  of  the 
expansion  of  the  Jewish  system  to  meet  the  wants,  of  all  na- 
tions should  have  been  made  to  the  apostle  on  the  house-top 
at  Jaffa — 

*'  Wten  o'er  tlie  glowing  western  main 

His  wistful  brow  was  upward  raised ; 
Where,  like  an  angel's  train, 

The  burnished  water  blazed." 

This  leads  us  to  another  point  of  view,  in  which  the  situa- 


SITUATION   OF   PALESTINE.  481 

tion  of  Palestine  is  remarkably  bound  up  with  its  future  des- 
tinies. "I  have  set  Jerusalem  in  the  midst  of  the  nations  and 
countries  that  are  round  about  her."  In  later  times  this  pas- 
sage was  taken  in  the  hteral  sense  that  Palestine,  and  Jerusa- 
lem especially,  was  actually  the  center  of  the  earth — a  behef 
of  which  the  memorial  is  yet  preserved  in  the  large  round 
stone  still  kissed  devoutly  by  Greek  pilgrims,  in  their  portion 
of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  It  is  one  of  the  many 
instances  in  which  the  innocent  fancy  of  an  earher  faith  has 
been  set  aside  by  the  discoveries  of  later  science.  In  the  East, 
probably,  there  are  still  many  points  of  this  kind  which  have 
been  long  surrendered  in  the  more  stirring  West.  But  there 
was  a  real  truth  in  it  at  the  time  that  the  Prophet  wrote, 
which  the  subsequent  course  of  history  makes  it  now  difficult 
for  us  to  realize.  Palestine,  though  now  at  the  very  outskirts 
of  that  tide  of  civilization  which  has  swept  far  into  the  re- 
motest West,  was  then  the  vanguard  of  the  eastern,  and  there- 
fore, of  the  civilized  world ;  and,  moreover,  stood  midway 
between  the  two  great  seats  of  ancient  empire,  Babylon  and 
Egypt.  It  was  on  the  high  road  from  one  to  the  other  of 
these  mighty  powers,  the  prize  for  which  they  contended,  the 
battle-field  on  which  they  fought — the  high  bridge,  over  which 
they  ascended  and  descended  respectively  into  the  deep  basins 
of  the  Nile  and  Euphrates.  Its  first  appearance  on  the  stage 
of  history  is  as  a  halting-place  for  a  wanderer  from  Mesopo- 
tamia, who  "passed  through  the* land,"  and  "journeyed  going 
on  still  toward  the  south,"  and  "went  down  into  Egjqpt." 
The  first  great  struggle  which  that  wanderer  had  to  maintain, 
was  against  the  host  of  Chedorlaomer,  from  Persia  and  from 
Babylon.  The  battle  in  which  the  latest  hero  of  the  Jewish 
monarchy  perished,  was  to 'check  the  advance  of  an  Egyptian 
king  on  his  way  to  contest  the  empire  of  the  then  known 
world  with  the  King  of  Assyria  at  Carchemish.  The  whole 
history  of  Palestine,  between  the  return  from  the  captivity 
and  the  Christian  era,  is  a  contest  between  the  "kings  of  the 
north  and  the  kings  of  the  south" — the  descendants  of  Se- 


482  PALESTINE  A   LAND   OF   RUINS. 

leucus  and  the  descendants  of  Ptolemy, — for  the  possession 
of  the  country.  And  when  at  last  the  West  begins  to  rise  as 
a  new  power  on  the  horizon,  Palestine  as  the  nearest  point  of 
contact  between  the  two  worlds,  becomes  the  scene  of  the 
chief  conflicts  of  Rome  with  Asia.  There  is  no  other  coun- 
try in  the  world  which  could  exhibit  the  same  confluence  of 
associations,  as  that  which  is  awakened  by  the  rocks  which 
overhang  the  crystal  stream  of  the  Dog  River,  where  it  rushes 
through  the  ravines  of  Lebanon  into  the  Mediterranean  Sea ; 
where  side  by  side  are  to  be  seen  the  hieroglyphics  of  the 
great  Rameses,  the  cuneiform  characters  of  Sennacherib,  and 
the  Latin  inscriptions  of  the  Emperor  Antoninus. 

This  is  the  most  convenient  place  for  noticing  a  peculiarity 
of  the  present  aspect  of  Palestine,  which  though  not,  prop- 
erly speaking,  a  physical  feature,  is  so  closely  connected  both 
with  its  outward  imagery  and  with  its  general  situation,  that 
it  can  not  be  omitted.  Above  all  other  countries  in  the  world, 
it  is  a  Land  of  Ruins.  It  is  not  that  the  particular  ruins  are 
on  a  scale  equal  to  those  of  Greece  or  Italy,  still  less  to  those 
of  Egypt.  But  there  is  no  country  in  which  they. are  so  nur 
merous,  none  in  which  they  bear  so  large  a  proportion  to  the 
villages  and  towns  still  in  existence.  In  Judeea  it  is  hardly 
an  exaggeration  to  say  that  whilst  for  miles  and  miles  there  is 
•10  appearance  of  present  life  or  habitation,  except  the  occa- 
sional goat-herd  on  the  hill-side,  or  gathering  of  women  at  the 
wells,  there  is  yet  hardly  a  Kill-top  of  the  many  within  sight 
which  is  not  covered  by  the  vestiges  of  some  fortress  or  city 
of  former  ages.  Sometimes  they  are  fragments  of  ancient 
walls,  sometimes  mere  foundations  and  piles  of  stone,  but  al- 
ways enough  to  indicate  signs  of  human  habitation  and  civil- 
ization. Such  is  the  case  in'  Western  Palestine.  In  Eastern 
Palestine,  and  still  more  if  we  include  the  Hauran  and  the 
Lebanon,  the  same  picture  is  continued,  although  under  a 
somewhat  different  aspect.  Here  the  ancient  cities  remain,  in 
like  manner  deserted,  ruined,  but  standing ;  not  mere  masses 
and  heaps  of  stone,  but  towns  and  houses,  in  amount  and  in  a 


TEMPLE  OF  BIRS-NIMRUD— BABEL  (ToWER  OF  TONGUES.) 
The  ruins  of  the  vast  Tower,  notwithstanding  all  the  degradations  of  man,  generation  after 
generation,  and  the  waste  of  time,  age  after  age,  still  remain  an  enduring  monument  of  the  am- 
bitious impiety  of  an  ancient  race  and  of  the  avenging  justice  of  God. 


484  RUINS    OF   PALESTINE. 

state  of  preservation  which  have  no  parallel  except  in  the 
cities  of  Herciilaneum  and  Pompeii,  buried  under  the  eruption 
of  Vesuvius.  Not  even  in  Rome  or  Athens,  hardly  in  EgTj)- 
tian  Thebes,  can  ancient  buildings  be  found  in  such  magni- 
tude and  such  profusion  as  at  Baalbec,  Jerasli,  and  Palmyra. 
No  where  else,  it  is  said,  can  all  the  details  of  Roman  domestic 
architecture  be  seen  so  clearly  as  in  the  hundreds  of  deserted 
villages  which  stand  on  the  red  desert  of  the  Hauran.  This 
difference  between  the  ruins  of  the  two  regions  of  Palestine 
arises,  no  doubt,  from  the  circumstance,  that  Avhereas  Eastern 
Syria  has  been  for  the  last  four  hundred  years  entirely,  for 
the  last  fifteen  hundred  years  nearly,  deserted  by  civilized, 
almost  by  barbarian,  man.  Western  Palestine  has  always  been 
the  resort  of  a  population  which,  however  rude  and  scanty, 
has  been  sufficiently  numerous  and  energetic  to  destroy  and 
to  appropriate  edifices  which  in  the  less  frequented  parts  be- 
yond the  Jordan  have  escaped  through  neglect  and  isolation. 
But  the  general  fact  of  the  ruins  of  Palestine,  whether 
erect  or  fallen,  remains  common  to  the  whole  country ;  deep- 
ens and  confirms,  if  it  does  not  create,  the  impression  of  age 
and  decay,  which  belongs  to  almost  every  view  of  Palestine, 
and  invests  it  with  an  aj)pearance  which  can  be  called  by  no 
other  name  than  venerable.  Moreover,  it  carries  us  deep  into 
the  historical  peculiarities  of  the  country.  Jhe  ruins  we  now 
see  are  of  the  most  diverse  ages ;  Saracenic,  Crusading,  Ro- 
man, Grecian,  Jewish,  extending  perhaps  even  to  the  old 
Canaanitish  remams,  before  the  arrival  of  Joshua.  This  va- 
riety, this  accumulation  of  destruction,  is  the  natural  result 
of  the  position  which  has  made  Palestine  for  so  many  ages 
the  thoroughfare  and  prize  of  the  world.  And  although  we 
now  see  this  aspect  brought  out  in  a  fuller  light  than  ever  be- 
fore, yet  as  far  back  as  the  history  and  language  of  Palestine 
reaches,  it  was  familiar  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  country.  In 
the  rich,  local  vocabulary  of  the  Hebrew  language,  the  words 
for  sites  of  ruined  cities  occupy  a  remarkable  place.  Four 
separate  designations  are  used  for  the  several  stages  of  decay 


4SG  RUINS  OF  PALESTINE. 

or  of  destruction,  which  were  to  be  seen  even  during  the  first 
vigor  of  the  Israelite  conquest  and  monarchy.  There  was  the 
rude."  cairn,"  or  pile  of  stones  rougldy  rolled  together.  There 
was  the  mound  or  heap  of  ruin,  which,  like  the  Monte  Testac- 
cio  at  Rome  was  composed  of  the  rubbish  and  ddbris  of  a  fallen 
city.  There  were  the  forsaken  villages,  such  as- those  in  the 
Hauran,  when  "  the  cities  were  wasted  without  inhabitant  and 
the  houses  without  man," — "  forsaken,  and  not  a  man  to  dwell 
therein."  There  are  lastly,  true  ruins,  such  as  those  to 
which  we  give  the  name — buildings  standing,  yet  shattered, 
like  those  of  Baalbec  or  Palmyra. 

What,  therefore,  we  now  see,  must  to  a  certain  extent  have 
been  seen  always — a  country  strewed  with  the  relics  of  an 
earlier  civilization  ;  a  country  exhibiting  even  in  the  first  dawn 
of  history  the  theater  of  successive  conquests  and  destructions 
— "  giants  dwelling  therein  of  old  time  ....  a  people  great, 
and  many,  and  tall,  ....  but  the  Lord  destroyed  them  before 
those  that  came  after ;  and  they  succeeded  them  and  dwelt  in 
their  stead." 


CHAPTER  XXXVir. 

CLIMATE  AND  SCENERY  OF  PALESTINE. 

BY   A.    P.   STANLEY,    DEAN   OF    WESTMINSTER   ABBEY. 

The  Land  of  "Milk  and  Honey" — Destruction  of  Forests — Contrast  with  the 
Desert — Contrast  with  Assyria  and  Egypt — Variety  of  Structure  and  Cli- 
mate— Palestine  a  Mountainous  Country — Aram — The  Views  of  Sacred  His- 
tory— What  Abraham  Saw  from  Bethel — What  Balaam  Saw  from  the  Hills 
of  Moab — What  Moses  Saw  from  Pisgah — What  Jesus  Saw  from  the  Mount 
of  Temptation — The  Fenced  Cities — The  "  High  Places" — Political  Divisions 
and  Conquests  —  Highlands  and  Lowlands  —  Distinction  Between  Palestine 
and  Other  Half-civilized  Countries — Scenery  of  Palestine. 

UT  this  aspect  of  the  land,  whilst  it  reminds  us  in 
some  respects  of  the  identity  of  its  present  appear- 
ance with  that  of  the  past,  reminds  us  still  more  for- 
cibly of  its  difference. 

The, countless  ruins  of  Palestine,  of  whatever  date  they 
may  be,  tell  us  at  a  glance  that  we  must  not  judge  the  re- 
sources of  the  ancient  land  by  its  present  depressed  and  des- 
olate state.  They  show  us  not  only  that  "  Syria  might  sup- 
port tenfold  its  present  population,  and  bring  forth  tenfold  its 
present  produce,"  but  that  it  actually  did  so.  And  this  brings 
us  to  the  question  which  Eastern  travelers  so  often  ask,  and 
are  asked  on  their  return,  "  Can  these  stony  hills,  these  de- 
serted valleys,  be  indeed  the  Land  of  Promise,  the  land  flow- 
ing with  milk  and  honey  ?  " 

There  are  two  answers  to  this  question.  First,  as  has  just 
been  observed,  the  country  must  have  been  very  different 
when  every  hill  was  crowned  with  a  flourishing  town  or  vil- 
lage, from  what  it  is  since  it  ceased  to  be  the  seat  not  only  of 
civilization,  but  in  many  instances  even  of  the  population  and 


FORESTS   OF   PALESTINE.  489 

habitations  which  once  fertilized  it.  "  The  entire  destruction 
of  the  woods  which  once  covered  the  mountains,  and  the 
utter  neglect  of  the  terraces  which  supported  the  soil  on 
steep  declivities,  have  given  full  scoj)e  to  the  rains,  which 
have  left  may  tracts  of  bare  rock,  where  formerly  were  vine- 
yards and  cornfields."  It  is  probable,  too,  that,  as  in  Europe 
generally,  since  the  disappearance  of  the  German  forests,  and 
in  Greece,  since  the  fall  of  the  plane-trees  Avhich  once  shaded 
the  bare  landscape  of  Attica,  the  gradual  cessation  of  rain 
produced  by  this  loss  of  vegetation  has  exposed  the  country 
in  a  greater  degree  than  in  early  times  to  the  evils  of  drought. 
This  at  least  is  the  effect  of  the  testimony  of  residents  at 
Jerusalem,  within  whose  experience  the  Kedron  has  recently 
for  the  first  time  flowed  with  a  copious  torrent,  evidently  in 
consequence  of  the  numerous  enclosures  of  mulberry  and 
olive  groves,  made  within  the  last  few  years  by  the  Greek  con- 
vent, and  in  themselves  a  sample  of  the  different  aspect  which 
such  cultivation  more  widely  extended  would  give  to  the 
whole  country.  The  forest  of  Hareth,  and  the  thicket-wood 
of  Ziph,  in  Judcea ;  the  forest  of  Bethel ;  the  forest  of  Sharon ; 
the  forests  which  gave  their  name  to  Kirjath-jearim,  "  the  city 
of  forests,"  have  long  disappeared.  Palm-trees,  which  are 
now  all  but  unknown  on  the  hills  of  Palestine,  formerly  grew, 
as  we  shall  presently  see,  with  myrtles  and  pines,  on  the  now 
almost  barren  slopes  of  Olivet ;  and  groves  of  oak  and  tere- 
binth, though  never  frequent,  must  have  been  certainly  more 
common  than  at  present.  The  very  labor  which  was  expen- 
ded on  these  barren  hills  of  Palestine  in  former  times,  has  in- 
creased their  present  sterility.  The  natural  vegetation  has 
been  swept  away,  and  no  human  cultivation  now  occupies 
the  terraces  which  once  took  the  place  of  forests  and  pastures. 
Secondly,  even  without  such  an  effort  of  imagination  as  is 
required  to  conceive  an  altered  state  of  population'  and  civil- 
ization, it  is  enough  to  remember  the  actual  situation  of  Pal- 
estine, in  its  relation  to  the  surrounding  countries  of  the  East. 
We  do  not  sufficiently  bear  in  mind  that  the  East,  that  is  the 


490  VERDURE  OF   PALESTINE. 

country  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  table-lands  of 
Persia,  between  the  Sahara  and  the  Persian  gulf,  is  a  water- 
less desert,  only  diversified  here  and  there  by  strips  and 
patches  of  vegetation.  Such  green  spots  or  tracts, — which 
are  in  fact  but  oases  on  a  large  scale, — are  the  rich  plains  on 
the  banks  of  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates,  the  long  strips  of 
verdure  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  the  occasional  centres  of 
vegetation  in  Arabia  Felix  and  Idumea ;  and,  lastly,  the  cul- 
tivated though  narrow  territory  of  Palestine  itself.  It  is  true 
that  as  compared  with  the  depth  of  soil  and.  richness  of  veg- 
etation on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  or  with  the  carpet  of  flow- 
ers described  on  the  banks  of  the  Chebar,  Palestine  seems 
poor  and  bare.  But  as  compared  with  the  whole  surrounding 
country  in  the  midst  of  which  it  stands,  it  is  unquestionably 
a  fertile  land  in  the  midst  of  barrenness.  The  impression  on 
entering  it  from  the  south  has  been  already  described.  The 
desert  often  encroaches  upon  it — the  hills  of  Anti-Libanus 
which  overhang  the  plain  of  Damascus,  and  those  which 
bound  Judsea  on  the  east,  are  as  truly  parts  of  the  wilderness 
as  Sinai  itself.  But  the  interioj  of  the  country  is  never  en- 
tirely destitute  of  the  "signs  of  life,  and  the  long  tracts  of 
Esdraelon,  and  the  sea-coast  and  the  plain  of  Gennesareth, 
are,  or  may  be,  as  rich  with  gardens  and  with  cornfields  as 
the  most  favored  spots  in  Egypt.  And  there,  is,  moreover, 
this  peculiarity  which  distinguishes  Palestine  from  the  only 
countries  with  which  it  could  then  be  brought  into  compari- 
son. Chaldea  and  Egypt — the  latter  of  course  in  an  eminent 
degree — depend  on  the  course  of  single  rivers.  Without  the 
Nile,  and  the  utmost  use  of  the  waters  of  the  Nile,  Egjrpt 
would  be  a  desert.  But  Palestine  is  well  distinguised  not 
merely  as  "  a  land  of  wheat  and  barley,  and  vines,  and  fig- 
trees,  and  pomegranates,  of  oil-olive  and  honey,"  but  emphat- 
ically as  "  a  good  land,  a  land  of  brooks  of  water,  of  foun- 
tains and  depths  that  spring  out  of  'plains '  and  '  mountains' " 
— "  not  as  the  land  of  Egypt,  where  thou  sowedst  thy  seed 
and  wateredst  it  with  thy  foot,  as  a  garden  of  herbs  :  but  as 


FERTILITY  OF   PALESTINE.  491 

a  land  of  '  mountains '  and  '  plains,'  which  drinketh  water  of 
the  rain  of  heaven."  This  mountainous  character  —  this 
abundance  of  water  both  from  natural  springs  and  from  the 
clouds  of  heaven,  in  contradistinction  to  the  one  uniform  sup- 
ply of  the  great  river  ;  this  abundance  of  "  milk "  from  its 
"  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills,"  of  "  honey"  from  its  forests  and 
its  thymy  shrubs,  was  absolutely  peculiar  to  Palestine  amongst 
the  civilized  nations  of  the  East.  Feeble  as  its  brooks  might 
be, — though,  doubtless,  they  were  then  more  frequently  filled 
than  now — yet  still  it  was  the  only  country  where  an  Eastern 
could  have  been  familiar  with  the  image  of  the  Psalmist : 
"  He  sendeth  the  springs  into  the  valleys,  which  run  among 
the  'mountains.'"  Those  springs,  too,  however  short-lived, 
are  remarkable  for  their  copiousness  and  beauty.  Not  only 
not  in  the  East,  but  hardly  in  the  West,  can  any  fountains 
and  sources  of  streams  be  seen  so  clear,  so  full-grown  even 
at  their  birth,  as  those  which  fall  into  the  Jordan  and  its  lakes, 
through  its  whole  course  from  north  to  south.  Wales  or 
Westmoreland  are,  doubtless,  not  regarded  as  fertile  regions  ; 
and  the  green  fields  of  England,  to  those  who  have  come  fresh 
fi"om  Palestine,  seem,  by  way  of  contrast,  to  be  indeed  "  a  land 
of  promise."  But  transplant  Wales  or  Westmoreland  into 
the  heart  of  the  desert,  and  they  would  be  far  more  to  the 
inhabitant  of  the  desert  than  to  their  inhabitants  are  the  rich- 
est spots  of  England.  Far  more  :  both  because  the  contrast 
is  in  itself  greater,  and  because  the  phenomena  of  a  mountain 
country,  with  wells  and  sj)rings,  are  of  a  kind  almost  unknown 
to  the  dwellers  in  the  deserts  or  rirer-plains  of  the  East. 

Palestine,  therefore,  not  merely  by  its  situation,  but  by  its 
comparative  fertility,  might  well  be  considered  the  prize  of 
the  Eastern  world,  the  possession  of  which  was  the  mark  of 
God's  peculiar  favor ;  the  spot  for  which  the  nations  would 
contend :  as  on  a  smaller  scale  the  Bedouin  tribes  for  some 
"diamond  of  the  desert" — some  "palm-grove,  islanded  amid 
the  waste."  And  a  land  of  which  the  blessings  were  so  evi- 
dently the  gift  of  God,  not,   as  in  Egypt,  of  man's  labor, 


492  VARIETY   IN   PALESTINE. 

which  also,  by  reason  of  its  narrow  extent,  was  so  constantly 
within  reach  and  sight  of  the  neighboring  desert,  was  emi- 
nently calculated  to  raise  the  thoughts  of  the  nation  to  the 
Supreme  Giver  of  all  these  blessings,  and  to  bind  it  by  the 
dearest  ties  to  the  land  which  He  had  so  manifestly  favored. 

What  has  been  already  said  is  enough  to  indicate  the  ex- 
traordinary variety  of  structure  and  temperature  exhibited  in 
the  Holy  Land.  It  is  said  by  Volney,  and  apparently  with 
justice,  that  there  is  no  district  on  the  face  of  the  earth  which 
contains  so  many  and  such  sudden  transitions.  Such  a  coun- 
try furnished  at  once  the  natural  theatre  of  a  history  and  a 
literature,  which  was  destined  to  spread  into  nations  accus- 
tomed to  the  most  various  climates  and  imagery.  There  must 
of  course,  under  any  circumstances,  be  much  in  the  history  of 
any  nation,  eastern  or  western,  northern  or  southern,  which, 
to  other  quarters  of  the  world,  will  be  more  or  less  unintel- 
hgible.  Still  it  is  easy  to  conceive  that  whatever  difficulty  is 
presented  to  European  or  American  minds  by  the  sacred  wri- 
tings, might  have  been  greatly  aggravated  had  the  Bible 
come  into  existence  in  a  country  more  limited  in  its  outward 
imagery  than  is  the  case  with  Palestine.  If  the  Valley  of 
the  Nile  or  the  Arabian  Desert  had  witnessed  the  whole  of 
the  sacred  history,  it  is  impossible  not  to  feel  how  widely  sep- 
arated it  would  have  been  from  the  ordinary  European  mind  ; 
how  small  a  portion  of  our  feelings  and  imaginations  would 
have  been  represented  by  it.  The  truths  might  have  been  the 
same,  but  the  forms  in  which  they  were  clothed  would  have 
affected  only  a  few  here  and  there,  leaving  the  great  mass  .un- 
touched. But  as  it  is,  we  have  the  life  of  a  Bedouin  tribe,  of 
an  agricultural  people,  of  seafaring  cities ;  the  extremes  of  bar- 
barism and  of  civilization ;  the  aspects  of  plain  and  of  moun- 
tain ;  of  a  tropical,  of  an  eastern,  and  almost  of  a  northern  cli- 
mate. In  Egypt  there  is  a  continual  contact  of  desert  and 
cultivated  land ;  in  Greece,  there  is  a  constant  intermixture 
of  the  views  of  sea  and  land ;  in  the  ascent  and  descent  of 
the  great  mountains  of  South  America  there  is  an  interchange 


CONTRASTS   IN    PALESTINE.  493 

of  the  torrid  and  the  arctic  zones ;  in  England  there  is  an 
altern^ion  of  wild  hills  and  valleys  with  rich  fields  and  plains. 
But  in  Palestine  all  these  are  combined.  The  patriarchs  could 
here  gradually  exchange  the  nomadic  life  for  the  pastoral,  and 
then  for  the  agricultural,  passing  almost  insensibly  from  one 
to  the  other  as  the  desert  melts  imperceptibly  into  the  hills 
of  Palestine.  Ishmael  and  Esau  could  again  wander  back 
into  the  sandy  waste  which  lay  at  their  very  doors.  The 
scapegoat  could  still  be  sent  from  the  temple-courts  into 
the  uninhabited  wilderness.  John,  and  a  greater  than  John, 
could  return  in  a  day's  journey  from  the  busiest  haunts  of 
men  into  the  solitudes  beyond  the  Jordan.  The  various  tribes 
could  find  their  several  occupations  of  shepherds,  of  warriors, 
of  traffickers,  according  as  they  were  settled  on  the  margin 
of  the  desert,  in  the  mountain  fastnesses,  or  on  the  shore  of 
the  Mediterranean.  The  sacred  poetry,  which  was  to  be  the 
delight  and  support  of  the  human  mind  and  the  human  soul 
in  all  regions  of  the  world,  embraced  within  its  range  the 
natural  features  of  almost  every  country.  The  venerable  poet 
of  our  mountain  regions  used  to  dwell  with  genuine  emotion 
on  the  pleasure  he  felt  in  the  reflection  that  the  Psalmists  and 
Prophets  dwelt  in  a  mountainous  country,  and  enjoyed  its 
beauty  as  truly  as  himself.  The  devotions  of  our  great  mar- 
itime empire  find  a  natural  expression  in  the  numerous  allu- 
sions, which  no  inland  situation  could  have  permitted,  to  the 
roar  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  breaking  over  the  rocks  of  Acre 
and  Tyre, — "  the  floods  lift  up  their  voice,  the  floods  lift  up 
their  waves," — the  "  great  and  wide  sea,"  whose  blue  waters 
could  be  seen  from  the  top  of  almost  every  mountain,  "  wherein 
are  things  creeping  innumerable."  There  go  the  Phoenician 
"  ships"  with  their  white  sails,  and  "  there  is  that  Leviathan," 
the  monster  of  the  deep,  which  both  Jewish  and  Grecian 
fancy  was  wont  to  place  in  the  inland  ocean,  which  was  to 
them  all,  and  more  than  all,  what  the  Atlantic  is  to  us. 
Thither,  "  they  went  down"  from  their  mountains,  and  "  did 

their  business  in  ships,"  in  the  "  great  waters,"  and  saw  the 
30 


494  CONTRASTS   IN   PALESTINE. 

"wonders"  of  the  "deep;"  and  along  those  shores  where 
the  "havens,"  few  and  far  between,  "  where  they  would  be" 
when  "  the  storm  became  calm,  and  the  waves  thereof  were 
still."  And  with  these  milder,  and  to  us  more  familiar 
images,  were  blended  the  more  terrible,  as  well  as  the  more 
beautiful  forms,  of  tropical  and  eastern  life.  There  was  the 
earthquake  and  possibly  the  volcano.  "  He  looketh  on  the 
earth  and  it  tremble th — He  toucheth  the  mountains  and  they 
smoke."  "  The  mountains  shall  be  molten  under  Him,  and 
the  valleys  shall  be  cleft  as  wax  before  the  fire,  and  as  the 
waters  that  are  poured  down  a  steep  place."  There  was  the 
hurricane,  with  its  thick  darkness,  and  the  long  continuous 
roll  of  the  oriental  thunder-storm.  "  He  bowed  the  Heavens 
and  came  down,  and  there  was  darkness  under  His  feet.  .  .  . 
He  rode  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind.  .  .  .  The  Lord  thun- 
dered out  of  heaven,  and  the  Highest  gave  His  voice,  hail- 
stones and  coals  of  fire.  .  .  .  The  voice  of  the  Lord  divideth 
the  flames  of  fire."  Hermon,  with  his  snowy  svmimit  always 
in  sight,  furnished  the  images  which  else  could  hardly  have 
keen  looked  for, — "  snow  and  vapors," — "  snow  like  wool," 
"  hoar-frost  like  ashes" — "  ice  like  morsels."  From  the  jun- 
gle of  the  Jordan  Valley  and  the  wild  mountains  of  Judah, 
came  the  "  lions  roaring  after  their  prey."  And  then  again, 
the  upland  hills  experienced  all  the  usual  alternations  of  the 
seasons ;  the  "  rain  descending  on  the  mown  grass,"  the 
"  early  and  the  latter  rain,"  the  mountains  "  watered  from 
His  chambers,  the  earth  satisfied  with  the  fruit  of  His 
works ; "  which,  though  not  the  same  as  the  ordinary  re- 
turns of  a  European  climate,  were  yet  far  more  like  it  than 
could  be  found  in  Egypt,  Arabia,  or  Assyria. 

Such  instances  of  the  variety  of  Jewish  experience  in  Pal- 
estine, as  contrasted  with  that  of  any  other  country,  might 
easily  be  multiplied.  But  enough  has  been  said  to  show  its  fit- 
ness for  the  history  or  the  poetry  of  a  nation  with  a  universal 
destiny,  and  to  indicate  one  at  least  of  the  methods  by  which 
that  destiny  was  fostered  ;  the   sudden  contrasts  of  the  vari- 


MOUNTAINOUS    CHARACTER   OF   PALESTINE.  495 

Oils  aspects  of  life  and  death,  sea  and  land,  verdure  and  des- 
ert, storm  and  calm,  heat  and  cold,  which,  so  far  as  any  natu- 
ral means  could  assist,  cultivated  what  has  been  well  called 
the  "  variety  in  unity,  so  characteristic  of  the  sacred  books 
of  Israel ;  so  Unlike  those  of  India,  of  Persia,  of  Egypt,  of 
Arabia, 

Amidst  this  great  diversity  of  physical  features,  undoubt- 
edly the  one  which  most  prevails  over  the  others  is  its  moun- 
tainous character.  As  a  general  rule,  Palestine  is  not  merely 
a  mountainous  country,  but  a  mass  of  mountains,  rising  from 
a  level  sea-coast  on  the  west,  and  from  a  level  desert  on  the 
east,  only  cut  asunder  by  the  valley  of  the  Jordan  from  north 
to  south,  and  by  the  valley  of  Jezreel  from  east  to  west.  The 
result  of  this  peculiarity  is,  that  not  merely  the  hill-tops,  but 
the  valleys  and  plains  of  the  interior  of  Palestine,  both  east 
and  west,  are  themselves  so  high  above  the  level  of  the  sea, 
as  to  partake  of  all  the  main  characteristics  of  mountainous 
history  and  scenery.  Jerusalem  is  of  nearly  the  same  eleva- 
tion as  Skiddaw,  and  most  of  the  chief  cities  of  Palestine 
are  several  hundred  feet  above  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

Many  expressions  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  have 
immediate  reference  to  this  configuration  of  the  country,  the 
more  remarkable  from  its  contrast  with  the  flat  from  which  it 
rises  on  the  east  s.nd  south.  This  probably  is  at  least  one 
signification  of  the  "sarliest  name  by  which  not  Palestine  alone, 
but  the  whole  '^hai'n  of  mountains  of  which  it  is  an  offshoot, 
was  called, — "  ^  ram,"  or  the  "  highlands,"  as  distinguished 
from  "  Canaan,"  "  the  lowlands  "  or  plain  of  the  sea-coast  on 
the  vi  est,  and  the  "  Beka  "  or  great  plain  of  the  Mesopotamian 
deserts  on  the  east.  "Aram"  (or  Syria^  the  word  by  which 
the  Greeks  translated  the  word  into  their  own  language), 
geems  to  have  been  the  general  appellation  of  the  whole 
sweep  of  mountains  which  enclose  the  western  plains  of  Asia, 
and  which  were  thus  designated,  like  the  various  ranges  of 
Maratime,  Graian,  Pennine,  and  Julian  Alps,  by  some  affix  or 
epithet  to  distinguish  one  portion  from  another. 


496  PALESTINE  AS   A   HIGHLAND. 

However  this  may  be,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  Pales- 
tine we  are  in  the  "  Highlands  "  of  Asia.  This  was  the  more 
remarkable  in  connection  with  tlie  Israelites,  .because  they 
were  the  only  civilized  nation  then  existing  in  the  world, 
which  dwelt  in  a  mountainous  country.  The  great  states  of 
Egypt,  of  Assyria,  of  India,  rose  in  the  plains  formed  by  the 
mighty  rivers  of  those  empires.  The  mountains  from  which 
those  rivers  descended  were  the  haunts  of  the  barbarian  races 
who,  from  time  to  time,  descended  to  conquer  or  ravage  these 
rich  and  level  tracts.  But  the  Hebrew  people  was  raised 
above  the  other  ancient  states,  equally  in  its  moral  and  in  its 
physical  relations.  From  the  Desert  of  Arabia  to  Hebron  is  a 
continual  ascent,  and  from  that  ascent  there  is  no  descent  of 
any  importance  except  to  the  plains  of  the  Jordan,  Esdrse- 
lon,  and  the  coast.  To  "  go  down  into  Egypt,"  to  "  go  up 
into  Canaan,"  were  expressions  as  true  as  they  are  frequent  in 
the  account  of  the  patriarchal  migrations  to  and  fro  between 
the  two  countries.  From  a  mountain  sanctuary,  as  it  were,  Is- 
rael looked  over  the  world.  "  The  mountain  of  the  Lord's 
house," — "  established  on  the  tops  of  the  mountains," — "  ex- 
alted above  the  hills," — to  which  "  all  nations  should  go  up," 
was  the  image  in  which  the  prophets  delighted  to  represent 
the  future  glory  of  their  country.  When  "  the  Lord  had  a 
controversy  with  his  people,"  it  was  to  be  "  before  the  moun- 
tains and  the  hills,"  and  "  the  strong  foundations  of  the  earth." 
When  the  messengers  of  glad  tidings  returned  from  the  cap- 
tivity, their  feet  were  "  beautiful  upon  the  mountains."  It 
was  to  the  "  mountains  "  of  Israel  that  the  exile  lifted  up  his 
eyes,  as  the  place  from  "  whence  his  help  came."  To  the 
oppressed  it  was  "  the  mountains  "  that  brought  "  judgment, 
and  the  hiUs  righteousness."  "  My  mountains  " — "  my  holy 
mountain," — are  expressions  for  the  whole  country. " 

One  striking  consequence  of  this  elevation  of  the  whole 
mass  of  the  country  is  that  every  high  point  in  it  commands 
a  prospect  of  greater  extent  than  is  common  in  ordinary 
mountain  districts.     On  almost  every  eminence  there  is  an 


i 


MOUNTAIN   VIEWS   OF   PALESTINE.  497 

opportunity  for  one  of  those  wide  views  or  surveys  which 
abound  in  the  history  of  Palestine,  and  which,  more  than 
anything  else,  connect  together  our  impression  of  events  and 
of  the  scene  on  which  they  were  enacted.  There  are  first 
the  successive  views  of  Abraham ;  as  when  on  "  the  moun- 
tain east  of  Bethel,"  "  Lot  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  beheld  all 
the  plain  of  Jordan," — and  Abraham  "  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and 
looked  from  the  place  where  he  was,  northward,  and  south- 
ward, and  eastward,  and  westward ; "  or  again,  when  "Abra- 
ham looked  towards  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  .  .  .  and  beheld, 
and,  lo,  the  smoke  of  the  country  went  up  as  the  smoke  of  a 
furnace  ; "  or  yet  again,  when  "  he  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and 
saw  the  place  afar  off  in  the  land  of  Moriah."  In  the  later 
history  there  is  unfolded  still  more  distinctly  the  view  of 
Balaam  from  the  "  high  places  of  Moab,"  where  "  from  the 
top  of  the  rocks  he  saw  "from  the  hUls  he  beheld,"  not  only 
"  the  tents  of  Jacob  "  and  the  "  tabernacles  of  Israel,"  with 
their  future  greatness  rising  far  in  the  distance,  but  the  sur- 
rounding nations  also,  whose  fate  was  interwoven  with  theirs 
— and  he  thought  of  Edom  and  Seir,  and  "  looked  on  Amalek  " 
and  "  looked  on  the  Kenite."  And  close  upon  this  follows  the 
view — the  most  famous  in  all  time,  the  proverb  of  all  languages 
— when  from  that  same  spot — "the  field  of  Zophim  on  the  top 
of  Pisgah," — Moses,  from  "  the  mountain  of  Nebo,  the  top 
of  Pisgah,"  saw  "  all  the  land  of  Gilead  unto  Dan,  and  all 
Naphthali,  and  the  land  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  and  all 
the  land  of  Judah  unto  the  utmost  sea,  and  the  south,  and 
the  plain  of  Jericho,  the  city  of  palm-trees,  unto  Zoar."  Such 
too,  in  vision,  was  the  "  very  high  mountain,  in  the  land  of 
Israel,"  from  which  Ezekiel  saw  the  "  frame  of  the  city,"  and 
"  the  waters  issuing  to  the  east  country,"  "  the  desert,"  and 
"  the  sea."  Such — in  vision,  also — was  the  mountain  "  ex- 
ceeding high,"  which  revealed  on  the  day  of  the  temptation 
"  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the  glory  of  them."  Such 
— not  in  vision,  but  in  the  most  certain  reality,  was  that 
double  view  of  Jerusalem  from  Mount  Olivet — the  first,  when, 


498  MOUNTAIN   VIEWS   OF   PALESTUTB. 

at  the  sudden  turn  of  the  road  from  Bethany,  "  He  beheld 
the  city,  and  wept  over  it,"  the  second,  when  "He  sat  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  over  against  the  temple,"  and  saw  those 
"  great  buildings." 

"Other  prospects  such  as  of  Jacob  from  Mahanaim,  of  Deb- 
orah from  Mount  Tabor,  of  Solomon  from  Gibeon,  though 
not  detailed,  can  well  be  imagined;  others,  again,  though 
belonging  to  later  times,  are  yet  full  of  interest — the  view, 
whether  historical  or  legendary,  of  Mahomet  over  Damascus  ; 
the  view  of  Jerusalem,  as  Titus  saw  it  from  the  heights  of 
Scopus,  or  as  it  burst,  eleven  centuries  later,  on  the  crusading 
armies  at  the  same  spot,  or  as  the  pilgrims  beheld  it  from 
"  Montjoye." 

To  all  these  I  shall  return  in  detail  as  we  come  to  them  in 
their  several  localities.  No  other  history  contains  so  many  of 
these  points  of  contact  between  the  impressions  of  life  and 
the  impressions  of  outward  scenery.  But,  besides  this  im- 
aginative result,  if  one  may  so  say,  the  mountainous  charac- 
ter of  Palestine  is  intimately  connected  with  its  history, 
both  religious  and  political. 

The  infinite  multiplication  of  these  hills  renders  intelligible 
two  points  constantly  recurring  in  the  history  of  the  Jewish 
people — the  "  fenced  cities  "  and  the  "  high  places."  From 
the  earliest  times  of  the  occupation  of  the  country  by  a  civ- 
ilized and  stationary  people,  we  hear  of  the'  cities  great  and 
"  walled  up  to  Tieaven^''  which  terrified  the  Israelite  spies  ;  of 
the  "  fenced  cities "  attacked  by  Sennacherib,  of  the  various 
hill-forts,  Jotapata,  Masada,  Bether,  which  in  the  last  Jewish 
wars  held  out  against  the  Roman  forces.  This  is  still  the 
appearance  of  the  existing  villages  or  ruined  cities,  chiefly 
indeed  in  Judsea,  but  also  throughout  the  country,  in  this  re- 
spect more  like  the  towns  of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of 
Italy — "praeruptis  oppida  saxis" — ^than  those  of  any  other 
country.  A  city  in  a  valley,  instead  of  being  as  elsewhere 
the  rule,  is  here  the  exception ;  every  valley  has  its  hill,  and 
on  that  hill  a  city  is  set  that  "  cannot  be  hid."     From  stiU 


CONTRAST   OF   HILLS   AND    PLAINS.  501 

earlier  times,  the  same  tendency  is  observable  in  their  religious 
history.  These  multiplied  heights  were  so  many  natural 
altars  :  at  Bethel,  on  Moriah,  at  Dan,  at  Gibeon,  on  Mount 
Zion,  on  Olivet,  altars  were  successively  erected.  The  na- 
tional worship  down  to  the  time  of  Hezekiah  ma3i  almost  be 
said  to  have  been  a  religion  of  high  places.  There  was  no 
one  height  of  itself  sufficient  to  command  universal  acquies- 
cence.    In  this  equality  of  mountains,  all  were  alike  eligible. 

Again,  the  combination  of  this  mass  of  hills  with  its  bor- 
der plains  and  with  the  deserts  from  which  it  rises,  has  deeply 
affected  its  political  and  military  history.  The  allocation  of 
the  particular  portions  of  Palestine  to  its  successive  inhabit- 
ants, will  best  appear  as  we  proceed.  But  the  earliest  and 
most  fundamental  distributions  of  territory  are  according  to 
the  simple  division  of  the  country  into  its  highlands  and  low- 
lands. "  The  Amalekites,"  that  is,  the  Bedouin  •  tribes, 
"  dwell  in  the  land  of  the  south,"  that  is,  on  the  desert  front- 
ier,— "  and  the  Hittites  and  the  Jebusites  and  the  Amorites 
dwell  in  the  mountains,"  that  is,  the  central  mass  of  hills — 
"  and  the  Canaanites  dwell  by  the  sea  and  by  the  '  side '  of 
Jordan,"  that  is,  on  the  western  and  eastern  plains.  And  of 
the  early  inhabitants  thus  enumerated,  those  who  at  least  by 
their  names  are  brought  into  the  sharpest  geographical  con- 
trast are  the  Amorites  or  "  dwellers  on  the  summits,"  and 
the  Canaanites  or  "  lowlanders." 

But  it  is  in  the  history  of  the  conquest  of  Palestine,  that 
this  peculiarity  is  the  most  strongly  brought  out.  In  most 
countries  which  consist  of  mountains  and  lowlands,  two  his- 
torical results  are  observable ;  first,  that,  in  the  case  of  inva- 
sion, the  aboriginal  inhabitants  are  driven  to  the  mountains, 
and  the  plains  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  conquerors  ; 
secondly,  that,  in  the  case  of  semi-barbarous  countries  so  sit- 
uated, the  plains  are  the  secure,  the  mountains  the  insecure 
parts  of  the  region.  In  Palestine,  both  these  results  are  re- 
versed. Although  some  few  of  the  ancient  Amorite  tribes, 
such  as  the  Jebusites,  retained  their  strongholds  in  the  hills 


I 


NOMADIC   LIFE.  603 

for  many  years  after  the  first  conquest  of  Joshua,  yet  by  far 
the  majority  of  instances  recorded  as  resisting  the  progress 
of  the  conquerors  are  in  the  plains.  The  hills  of  Judah 
and  Ephraim  were  soon  occupied,  but  "  Manasseh  could  not 
drive  out  the  inhabitants  of  Bethshan,  .  .  nor  Taanach,  .  . 
nor  Dor,  .  .  .  nor  Ibleam,  .  .  .  nor  Megiddo,  .  .  [from  the 
plains  of  Esdraelon  and  Sharon,]  but  the  Canaanites  would 
dwell  in  the  land.  Neither  did  Asher  drive  out  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Accho,  ,  .  nor  of  Zidon,  .  .  nor  .  .  of  Achzib  .  . 
[in  the  bay  of  Acre,  and  the  coast  of  Phoenicia]  .  .  but  the 
Asherites  dwelt  among  the  Canaanites,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
land,  for  they  did  not  drive  them  out."  "  And  the  Amorites 
forced  the  children  of  Dan  into  the  mountain,  for  they  would 
not  suffer  them  to  come  down  into  the  valley.  But  the  Am- 
orites would  dwell  in  Mount  Heres  in  Aijalon  and  Shaalbim, 
3^et  the  hand  of  the  house  of  Joseph  prevailed,  so  that  they 
became  tributaries."  We  are  not  left  to  conjecture  as  to  one 
at  least  of  the  reasons.  "  The  Lord  was  with  Judah,  and  he 
drave  out  the  inhabitants  of  the  mountain ;  but  could  not 
drive  out  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley — because  they  had  char- 
iots of  iron.^''  The  Israelites  were  a  nation  of  infantry. 
Their  nomadic  life,  in  this  respect,  differing  from  that  of  the 
modern  Bedouins,  was  without  horses ;  and  even  after  thek 
settlement  in  Palestine,  horses  and  chariots  were  unknown 
as  a  national  possession  until  jthe  reign  of  Solomon.  The 
Canaanites,  on  the  contrary,  were  famous  for  their  chariots. 
One  chief  alone  is  described  as  possessing  "  nine  hundred ; " 
and  even  after  the  partial  introduction  of  them  during  the 
Jewish  monarchy,  the  contrast  between  the  infantry  of  the 
Israelites  and  the  chariots  of  the  armies  from  Damascus,  sug- 
gested the  same  comparison  that  might  have  been  made  by 
the  Canaanites  in  the  days  of  Joshua.  "  Their  gods  are  gods 
of  the  '  mountains  ; '  therefore  they  are  stronger  than  we ;  but 
let  us  fight  against  them  in  the  '  level,'  and  surely  we  shall 
be  stronger  than  they."  A  glance  at  the  description  of  Pales- 
tine given  above,  will  show  how  exactly  this  tallies  with  the 


504  WHEELED    VEHICLES    IN   PALESTINE. 

actual  results.  Roads  for  wheeled  vehicles  are  unknown  now 
in  any  part  of  Palestine ;  and  in  the  earlier  history  they  are 
very  rarely  mentioned  as  a  general  medns  of  communication. 
The  "  chariots "  of  Jehu  and  of  Ahab  are  only  described  as 
driven  along  the  plain  of  Esdraelon.  Under  the  Romans,  in- 
deed, the  same  astonishing  genius  for  road-making  which 
carried  the  Via  Flaminia  through  the  Apennines,  and  has 
left  traces  of  itself  in  the  narrow  pass  of  the  Scironian  rocks, 
may  have  increased  the  facilities  of  communication  in  Pales- 
tine, and  hence,  perhaps,  the  mention  of  the  chariot-road 
through  the  pass  from  Jerusalem  to  Gaza,  where  the  Ethio- 
pian met  Philip.  But  under  ordinary  circumstances,  they 
must  have  always  been  more  or  less  impracticable  in  the 
mountain  regions.  It  was  in  the  plains,  accordingly,  that  the 
enemies  of  Israel  were  usually  successful. 

Another  cause,  not  indeed  for  the  success  of  the  Canaan- 
ites'  resistance,  but  for  the  tenacity  with  which  they  clung  to 
the  plains,  is  to  be  seen  in  their'  great  superiority  both  for  ag- 
ricultural and  nomadic  purposes  to  anything  in  the  hills  of  Ju- 
daea or  Ephraim.  "  Judah,"  we  are  told,  at  first  "  took  Gaza, 
and  Askelon,  and  Ekron."  But  these  cities,  with  their  coasts. 
Boon  fell  again  into  the  hands  of  the  Philistines,  whether  the 
old  inhabitants,  or,  as  there  is  some  reason  to  think,  a  new 
race  of  settlers,  subsequent  to  the  first  conquest.  And  then, 
for  more  than  four  centuries,  a  struggle  was  maintained  till 
the  reign  of  David.  It  was  the  richest  portion  of  the  coun- 
try, and  the  Philistines  might  well  fight  for  it  to  the  last  gasp. 
In  the  same  way.  Tyre  and  Sidon,  Accho  and  Gaza,  cared  but 
little  for  the  new  comers,  if  they  could  but  retain  their  hold 
on  the  corn-fields  and  the  sea. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  other  peculiarity  which  distin- 
guishes Palestine  at  the  present  day,  from  other  half-civilized 
regions.  In  Greece  and  Italy  and  Spain,  it  is  the  mountain- 
ous tract  which  is  beset  with  banditti — the  level  country  which 
is  safe.  In  Palestine,  on  the  contrary,  the  mountain  tracts 
are  comparatively  secure,  though  infested  by  villages  of  he- 


PALESTINE  AND   THE   DESERT.  505 

reditary  ruffians  here  and  there ;  but  the  plains,  with  hardly 
an  exception,  are  more  or  less  dangerous.  Perhaps  the  most 
striking  contrast  is  the  passage  from  the  Hauran  and  plain  of 
Damascus,  to  the  uplands  of  the  Lebanon  and  Anti-Lebanon, 
with  their  quiet  villages,  and  fruit-gardens,  breathing  an  at- 
mosphere almost  of  European  comfort  and  security.  The 
cause  is  soon  told.  Palestine,  as  we  have  before  seen,  is  an 
island  in  a  desert  waste — but  from  this  very  fact  it  is  also  an 
island  in  the  midst  of  pirates.  The  Bedouin  tribes  are  the 
corsairs  of  the  wilderness ;  the  plains  which  run  into  the 
mountains  are  the  creeks  into  which  they  naturally  penetrate. 
Far  up  the  plains  of  Philistia  and  Sharon  come  the  Arabs  of 
the  Tih ;  deep  into  the  center  of  Palestine,  into  the  plain  of 
Esdraelon,  especially  when  the  harvest  has  left  the  fields  clear 
for  pasturage,  come  the  Arabs  of  the  Hauran  and  of  Gilead. 
The  same  levels  which  of  old  gave  an  opening  to  the  chariots 
of  the  Canaanites,  now  admit  the  inroad  of  these  wandering 
shepherds.  On- one  occasion,  even  in  ancient  times,  there 
was  a  migration  of  Bedouins  into  Palestine  on  a  gigantic 
scale ;  when  the  Midianites  and  Amalekites,  and  children  of 
the  East,  encamped  against  the  Israelites  in  their  maritime 
plain,  "with  their  cattle  and  their  tents,*'  and  "pitched"  their 
tents  in  Esdraelon,  and  "  lay  along  the  valley  like  grasshop- 
pers for  multitude."  This,  doubtless,  was  a  great  exception, 
and  in  the  flourishing  times  of  the  Jewish  Monarchy  and  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  the  hordes  of  the  desert  were  kept  out, 
or  were,  as  in  the  case  of  the  tribes  of  Petra  in  the  time  of 
the  Herods,  brought  within  the  range  of  a  partial  civihzation. 
But  now,  like  the  sands  of  their  own  deserts  wjiich  engulf 
the  monuments  of  Egypt,  no  longer  defended  by  a  watchful 
and  living  population,  they  have  broken  in  upon  the  country 
far  and  near ;  and  in  the  total  absence  of  solitary  dwelling- 
places — in  the  gathering  together  of  all  the  settled  inhabitants 
mto  villages, — and  in  the  walls  which,  as  at  Jerusalem,  enclose 
the  cities  round,  with  locked  gates  and  guarded  towers — we 
see  the  effect  of  the  constant  terror  which  they  inspire.     It 


506  IRRUPTION   OF   SAVAGE   TRIBES. 

is  the  same  peculiarity  of  Eastern  life,  as  was  exhibited  in  its 
largest  proportions  in  the  vast  fortifications  with  which  Nin- 
eveh and  Babylon  shut  themselves  in  against  the  attacks  of 
the  Bedouins  of  the  Assyrian  Desert,  and  in  the  great  wall 
which  still  defends  the  Chinese  empire  against  the  Mongolian 
tribes,  who  are  to  the  civilization  of  Northern  Asia,  what  the 
Arabs  are  to  that  of  the  south. 


CHAPTER   XXXVm. 

NATURAL  PRODUCTIONS  AND  SOIL  OF  PALESTINE. 

BY  A.  P.  STANLEY,  DEAN  OF  WESTMINSTER  ABBEY. 

Vegetation  of  Palestine  —  Trees  —  Olives  —  Cedars  of  Lebanon — Oaks  —  Tere- 
binths— Abraham's  Oak — Sacred  Trees — Oak  of  Moreh — Oak  of  Mamre — 
Palms — Sycamores — Oleanders — The  Wells  of  Palestine — Springs — Sepul- 
chres— Caves — Legendary  Curiosities. 

HAT  has  already  been  said  of  the  physical  config- 
uration of  the  country,  must  to  a  great  extent  have 
anticipated  what  can  be  said  of  its  scenery.  Yet 
the  character  of  scenery  depends  so  much  on  its  form  and 
color,  as  well  as  its  material — on  its  expression  as  well  as  its 
features — that,  unless  something  more  is  said,  we  shall  have 
but  a  faint  image  of  what  was  presented  to  the  view  of  Pa- 
triarch or  Prophet,  King  or  Psalmist.  Those  who  describe 
Palestine  as  beautiful  must  have  either  a  very  inaccurate  no- 
tion of  what  constitutes  beauty  of  scenery,  or  must  have 
viewed  the  country  through  a  highly  colored  medium.  As  a 
general  rule,  not  only  is  it  without  the  two  main  elements  of 
beauty — variety  of  outline  and  variety  of  color — ^but  the  fea- 
tures rarely  so  group  together  as  to  form  any  distinct  or  im- 
pressive combination.  The  tangled  and  featureless  hills  of 
the  lowlands  of  Scotland  and  North  Wales  are  perhaps  the 
nearest  likeness  accessible  to  Englishmen,  of  the  general  land- 
scape of  Palestine  south  of  the  plain  of  Esdraelon. 

Rounded  hills,  chiefly  of  a  gray  color — gray  partly  from  the 
limestone  of  which  they  are  all  formed,  partly  from  the  tufts 
of  gray  shrub  with  which  theu'  sides  are  thinly  clothed,  and 
from  the  prevalence  of  the  olive — their  sides  formed  into  con- 


608  FLOWERS   OF   PALESTINE. 

centric  rings  of  rock,  which  must  have  served  in  ancient  times 
as  supports  to  the  terraces,  of  which  there  are  still  traces  to 
their  very  summits ;  valleys,  or  rather  the  meetings  of  these 
gray  slopes  with  the  beds  of  dry  water-courses  at  their  feet — 
long  sheets  of  bare  rock  laid  like  flagstones,  side  by  side,  along 
the  soil — these  are  the  chief  features  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  scenery  of  the  historical  parts  of  Palestine.  In  such  a; 
landscape  the  contrast  of  every  exception  is  doubly  felt. 
The  deep  shade  of  the  mountain  wall  beyond  the  Jordan, — 
or  again  the  level  plains  of  the  coast  and  of  -  Esdraelon,  each 
cut  out  of  the  mountains  as  if  with  a  knife, — become  striking 
features  where  all  else  is  monotonous.  The  eye  rests  with 
peculiar  eagerness  on  the  few  instances  in  which  the  gentle 
depressions  become  deep  ravines,  as  in  those  about  Jerusalem, 
or  those  leading  down  to  the  valley  of  the  Jordan ;  or  in  which 
the  mountains  assume  a  bold  and  peculiar  form,  as  Lebanon 
and  Hermon  at  the  head  of  the  whole  country,  or  Tabor,  Nebi- 
Samuel,  and  the  "Frank  mountain,"  in  the  center  of  the  hills 
themselves. 

These  rounded  hills,  occasionally  stretching  into  long  un- 
didating  ranges,  are  for  the  most  part  bare  of  wood.  Forest 
and  large  timber  (with  a  few  exceptions,  hereafter  to  be  men- 
tioned), are  not  known.  Corn-fields  and,  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Christian  populations  as  at  Bethlehem,  vineyards  creep 
along  the  ancient  terraces.  In  the  spring,  the  hills  and  val- 
leys are  covered  with  thin  gr^-ss  and  the  aromatic  shrubs  which 
clothe  more  or  less  almost  the  whole  of  Syria  and  Arabia. 
But  they  also  grow  with  what  is  peculiar  to  Palestine,  a  pro- 
fusion of  wild  flowers,  daisies,  the  white  flower  called  the 
Star  of  Bethlehem,  but  especially  with  a  blaze  of  scarlet  flow- 
ers of  all  kinds,  chiefly  anemones,  wild  tulips,  and  poppies. 
Of  all  the  ordinary  aspects  of  the  country,  this  blaze  of  scarlet 
color  is  perhaps  the  most  peculiar;  and,  to  those  who  first 
enter  the  Holy  Land,  it  is  no  wonder  that  it  has  suggested  the 
touching  and  significant  name  of  "the  Saviour's  blood-drops." 

It  is  this  contrast  between  the  brilliant  colors  of  the  flow- 


•^  111!  iPi!i'iii;irwjff 


*i:lll 


iJJ 


:;i!iiil!ii^^^^^ 


510  POVEETY   OF   VEGETABLE   LIFE. 

ers  and  the  sober  hue  of  the  rest  of  the  landscape,  that  gives 
force  to  the  words, — "  Consider  the  lihes  of  the  field.  .  .  For 
I  say  unto  you,  that  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed 
like  one  of  these."  Whatever  was  the  special  flower  desig- 
nated by  the  lily  of  the  field,  the  rest  of  the  passage  indicates 
that  it  was  of  the  gorgeous  hues  which  might  be  compared  to 
the  robes  of  the  great  king.  The  same  remark  applies,  though 
in  a  less  degree,  to.  the  frequent  mention  of  the  same  flower 
in  the  Canticles, — "  I  am  the  rose  of  Sharon,  the  lily  of  the 
valleys,"  "  as  the  lily  among  thorns,"  "  he  feedeth  among  the 
lilies,"  "he  is  gone  to  gather  lilies." 

The  same  general  bareness  and  poverty  sets  off  in  the  same 
way  the  rare  exceptions  in  the  larger  forms  of  vegetable  life. 
The  olive,  the  fig,  and  the  pomegranate,  which  form  the  usual 
vegetation  of  the  country,  are  so  humble  in  stature,  that  they 
hardly  attract  the  eye  till  the  spectator  is  amongst  them. 
Then  indeed  the  twisted  stems  and  silver  foliage  of  the  first, 
the  dark,  broad  leaf  of  the  second,  the  tender,  green  and  scar- 
let blossoms  of  the  third,  are  amongst  the  most  beautiful 
of  sights,  even  when  stripped  of  the  associations  which  would 
make  the  tamest  of  their  kind  venerable.  On  the  lower  slopes 
of  the  hills,  olives  especially  are  more  or  less  thickly  scattered, 
with  that  peculiar  color  and  form  which  they  share  in  common 
with  those  of  Greece  and  of  Italy  ;  to  English  eyes  best  repre- 
sented by  aged  willows.  But  there  are  a  few  trees  which 
emerge  from  this  general  obscurity.  Foremost  stand  the  ce- 
dars of  Lebanon.  In  ancient  times  the  sides  of  that  moun- 
tain were  covered  with  them.  Now,  they  are  only  found  in 
one  small  hollow  on  its  north-western  slope.  But  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  they  were  always  confined  to  the  range 
of  Lebanon,  and  therefore,  properly  speaking,  were  not  trees 
of  Palestine  at  all.     The  expression  of  Keble, — 

"Far  o'er  the  cedar  shade  some  tower  of  giant  old," 

never  could  have  been  true  of  the  woods  and  ruins  of  Judea. 
It  was  the  very  remoteness  of  this  noble  tree,  combined  .with 


31 


512  TREES   OF   PALESTINE. 

its  majestic  height  and  sweeping  branches,  that  made  it,  one 
may  almost  say,  an  object  of  religious  reverence.  It  is  hardly 
ever  named  without  the  addition,  either  of  the  lofty  moun- 
tain where  it  grew, — "the  cedars  of  Lebanon," — or  of  some 
epithet  implying  its  grandeur  and  glory, — "  the  trees  of  the 
Lord,"  the  "cedars  which  He  hath  planted,"  "the  tall  ce- 
dars," "  the  cedars  high  and  lifted  up,"  "  whose  height  is  like 
the  height  of  the  cedars,"  "spread  abroad  like  the  cedar," 
"  with  fair  branches,"  "  with  a  shadowing  shroud,"  "  of  an  high 
stature,"  "his  top  among  the  thick  boughs,"  "his  height  ex- 
alted above  all  the  trees  of  the  field,"  "his  boughs  multiplied, 
his  branches  long,"  "fair  in  his  greatness,"  "in  the  length  of 
his  branches,"  "  by  the  multitude  of  his  branches."  These 
expressions  clearly  indicate  that  to  them  the  cedar  was 
a  portent,  a  grand  and  awful  work  of  God.  The  words 
would  never  have  been  used  had  it  been  a  familiar  sight 
amongst  their  ordinary  gardens,  as  it  is  in  ours.  It  is 
said  that  the  clergy  of  the  Greek  church  still  offer  up 
mass  under  their  branches,  as  though  they  formed  a  natural 
temple,  and  that  the  Arabs  call  them  the  "irees  of  God." 
This  may  now  be  a  homage  to  the  extreme  antiquity  of  those 
which  are  left ;  but  it  may  also  be  a  continuation  of  the  an- 
cient feeling  towards  them  which  filled  the  hearts  of  the  poets 
of  Israel.  Another  more  practical  indication  of  their  size,  as 
compared  to  any  Palestine  timber,  is  the  fact,  that  from  the 
earliest  times  they  have  always  been  used  for  all  the  great 
works  of  Jewish  architecture.  They  were  so  employed  for  Sol- 
omon's Temple,  and  again  for  the  Temple  of  Zerubbabel,  when 
nothing  but  sheer  necessity  could  have  induced  the  impover- 
ished people  to  send  so  far  for  their  timber.  They  were 
used  yet  Once  again,  probably  for  the  last  time,  in  Constan- 
tine's  Church  of  the  Nativity  at  Bethlehem.'  When  the  ceil- 
ing of  that  ancient  edifice  was  last  repaired,  the  rafters  were 
no  longer  from  the  forests  of  Lebanon,  but  gifts  from  our  own 
oaks  by  King  Edward  IV. 

Passing  from  these  trees,  whicli,  secluded  as  they  are  in  their 


TREES   OF   PALESTINE.  513 

retired  nook  on  the  heights  of  Lebanon,  could  therefore  illus- 
trate the  scenery  of  Palestine  only  by  contrast,  we  come  to 
those  which  must  always  have  presented  striking  objects  in 
the  view,  wherever  they  appeared.  The  first  were  those  to 
which  the  Hebrews  in  Palestine  emphatically  gave  the  name 
of  "the  tree,"  or  "the  strong  tree,"  namely,  the  "Turkish 
oak"  ("el"  or  "elah,"  in  Arabic  Sindian),  and  those  to  which 
the  same  name  was  given  by  a  very  sHght  variation  of  inflex- 
ion ("allon") — the  turpentine  or  terebinth, — in  Arabic  Butrn. 
The  trees  are  different  in  kind ;  but  their  general  appearance 
is  so  similar,  as  well  as  the  name  which  the  Hebrews  (doubt- 
less from  this  similarity)  applied  to  both,  that  they  may  both 
be  considered  together.  Probably  the  most  remarkable  speci- 
men of  the  oak  which  the  traveler  sees,  is  that  called  "the 
oak  of  Abraham,"  near  Hebron,  and  of  which  an  elaborate 
account  is  given  by  Dr.  Robinson.  A  familiar  example  of 
the  terebinth  is  that  at  the  north-west  corner  of  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem,  which  forms  a  marked  object  in  any  view  includ- 
ing that  portion  of  the  city.  They  are  both  tall  and  spread- 
ing trees,  with  dark  evergreen  foliage  ;  and  by  far  the  largest 
in  height  and  breadth  of  any  in  Palestine.  But  these,  too, 
are  rare ;  and  this  also  is  indicated  by  the  allusions  to  them 
in  the  Old  Testament.  In  a  less  degree  than  the  cedars  of 
Lebanon,  but  more  frequently,  from  their  being  brought  into 
closer  contact  with  the  history  of  Israel,  they  are  described  as 
invested  with  a  kind  of  religious  sanctity,  and  as  landmarks 
of  the  country,  to  a  degree  which  would  not  be  possible  in 
more  thickly  wooded  regions.  Each  successive  step  of  the 
first  patriarchal  migration  is  marked  by  a  halt  under  one  or 
more  of  these  towering  trees.  Under  the  oak  of  Moreh  at 
Shechem,  and  the  oak  of  Mamre  at  Hebron,  was  built  the  al- 
tar and  pitched  the  tent  of  Abraham.  And  each  of  these 
aged  trees  became  the  center  of  a  long  succession  of  histori- 
cal recollection.  Underneath  the  oak  of  Moreh,  or  its  suc- 
cessor, Jacob  buried,  as  in  a  consecrated  spot,  the  images  and 
the  ornaments  of  his  Mesopotamian  retainers.     In  the  same 


'W'»''i'|pi 


TREES   IN    PALESTINE.  515 

]  lace,  as  it  would  seem,  did  Joshua  set  up  the  "great  stone" 
tihat  was  "by  the  sanctuary  of  the  Lord;"  and  the  tree,  or 
the  spot,  appears  to  have  been  known  in  the  time  of  the 
Judges,  as  the  traditional  site  of  these  two  events,  by  the 
double  name  of  the  "  oak  of  the  enchantments,"  and  "  the  oak 
of  the  pillar."  Still  more  remarkable  was  the  history  of  the 
"oak  of  Mamre."  There  are  here  indeed  two  rival  claim- 
ants. The  LXX.  translating  the  word  "allon"  by  (5pu?,  evi- 
dently regards  it  as  identical  with  elah^  and  therefore,  as  an 
oak  ;  and  it  is  curious  that  the  only  large  tree  now  existing  in 
the  neighborhood,  is  that  already  alluded  to  as  the  chief  of 
a  group  of  ilexes  in  the  valley  of  Eschol,  about  a  mile  from  He- 
bron ;  and  is,  in  all  probalnlity,  the  same,  or  in  the  same  situa- 
tion, as  that  alluded  to  in  the  twelfth  century  by  Ssewulf,  and  in 
the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  by  Mandeville  and  Sanutus,  as 
possessed  of  extraordinary  virtues,  and  the  subject  of  a  singular 
legend.  But  the  tradition  in  the  time  of  Josephus  was 
attached  to  a  terebinth.  None  such  now  remains  ;  but  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  it  stood  wuthin  the  ancient  enclosure 
which  he  mentions,  and  of  which  ruins  still  remain  to  tlie 
north  of  Hebron,  under  the  name  of  "Abraham's  house." 
It  was  a  gigantic  tree,  supposed  to  be  coeval  with  the  creation. 
In  tlie  time  of  Constantine  it  was  hung  with  images  and  witli 
a  picture  representing  the  Entertainment  of  the  Angels — and 
underneath  its  shade  was  held  a  fair,  in  which  Christians, 
Jews,  and  Arabs,  assembled  every  summer  to  traffic,  and  to 
honor,  each  with  his  own  rites,  the  sacred  tree  and  its  accom- 
panying figures.  Constantine  abolished  the  worship  and  the 
images,  but  the  tree,  with  the  fair,  remained  to  the  time  of 
Theodosius.  It  gave  its  namd  to  the  spot,  and  was  still  stand- 
ing within  the  church  which  was  built  around  it,  till  the  sev- 
enth century  ;  and  in  later  times  marvellous  tales  were  told  of 
its  having  sj)rung  from  the  staff  of  one  of  the  angelic  visitants, 
and  of  its  blazing  with  fire  yet  remaining  always  fresh.  It  is 
said  to  have  burnt  down  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

These  are  the  two  most  remarkable  of  the  trees  mentioned 


516  TREES   IN   PALESTINE. 

But  there  are  also  others:  the  "oak  of  Bethel,"  under  which 
Deborah,  the  nurse  of  Jacob,  was  interred,  known  by  the 
name  of  the  "  terebinth  of  tears ; "  the  "  oaks  of  the  wander- 
ers," under  which  the  nomad  tribe  of  the  Kenites  was 
encamped  in  the  north.  And  in  all  these  cases,  as  they  had 
at  first  been  marked  out  as  natural  resting-places  for  the  patri- 
archal or  Arab  encampments,  so  they  were  afterwards  in  all 
probability  the  sacred  trees  and  the  sacred  groves  under  which 
altars  were  built,  partly  to  the  true  God,  partly  to  Astarte. 
One  such  grove,  apparently  with  the  remains  of  a  sacred  edifice, 
exists  at  Hazori,  near  Baneas  ;  another,  of  singular  .beauty,  on 
the  hill  of  the  lesser  sources  of  the  Jordan,  at  the  ancient 
sanctuary  of  Dan. 

These  instances  are  all  more  or  less  isolated.  There  is  one 
district,  however,  where  the  oaks  flourished  and  still  flourish 
in  such  abundance  as  to  constitute  almost  a  forest.  On  the 
table-lands  of  Gilead  are  the  thick  oak-woods  of  Bashan,  often 
alluded  to  in  the  prophets,  as  presenting  the  most  familiar  im- 
age of  forest  scenery — famous  in  history,  as  the  scene  of  the 
capture  and  death  of  Absalom,  when  he  was  caught  amongst 
their  tangled  branches. 

Another  tree,  w^iich  breaks  the  uniformity  of  the  Syrian 
landscape  by  the  rarity  of  its  occurrence,  no  less  than  by  its 
beauty,  is  the  palm.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  this  stately  tree, 
so  intimately  connected  with  our  associations  of  Judaea  by 
the  Roman  coins,  which  rej)resent  her  seated  in  captivity  un- 
der its  shade,  is  now  almost  unknown  to  her  hills  and  valleys. 
Two  or  three  in  the  garden  of  Jerusalem,  some  few  perhaps 
at  Nablous,  one  or  two  in  the  plain  of  Esdraelon — comprise 
nearly  all  the  instances  of  the  palm  in  central  Palestine.  In 
former  times  it  was  doubtless  more  common.  In  the  valley 
of  the  Jordan,  one  of  the  most  striking  features  used  to  be 
the  immense  palm-grove,  seven  miles  long,  which  surrounded 
Jericho ; — of  which  large  remains  were  still  visible  in  the 
seventh  century  and  the  twelfth,  some  even  in  the  seven- 
teenth ;  and  of  which  relics  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  trunks 


TREES   IN   PALESTINE.  517 

of  palms  washed  up  on  the  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea, — preserved 
by  the  salt  with  which  a  long  submersion  in  those  strange 
waters  has  impregnated  them.  En-gedi,  too,  on  the  western 
side  of  the  same  lake,  was  known  in  early  times  as  Hazazon- 
Tamar,  "  the  felling  of  palm-trees."  Now  not  one  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  deep  thicket  which  surrounds  its  spring,  and  at 
Jericho  even  the  solitary  palm,  for  many  years  observed  by 
travelers  as  the  only  remnant  of  its  former  glory,  has  dis- 
appeared. On  Olivet,  too,  where  now  nothing  is  to  be  seen 
but  the  olive  and  the  fig-tree,  there  must  have  been  at  least 
some  palms  in  ancient  days.  In  the  time  of  Ezra  they  went 
forth  unto  the  mount  to  fetch  for  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles 
"  olive-branches,  and  pine-branches,  and  myrtle-branches,  and 
palm-branches,  and  branches  of  thick  trees."  "  Bethany"  in 
all  probability  derives  its  name,  "  the  house  of  dates,"  from 
the  same  cause,  and  with  this  agrees  the  fact  that  the  crowd 
.which  escorted  our  Lord  to  Jerusalem  from  Bethany  "  took 
branches  of  palm-trees."  Still,  it  is  probable  that  even  then 
the  palm  was  rarely  found  on  the  high  land  which  forms  the 
main  portion  of  historical  Palestine.  It  is  emphatically,  as 
we  have  seen  in  the  account  of  Sinai,  the  "  tree  "  of  the  desert. 
It  is  always  spoken  of  in  Rabbinical  writers  as  a  tree  of  the 
valleys,  not  of  the  mountains.  It  grows  naturally,  and  were 
it  cultivated,  might  doubtless  grow  "again  in  the  tropical 
climate  of  the  valley  of  the  Jordan.  It  is  still  found  in  great 
abundance  on  the  maritime  plains  of  Philistia  and  Phoenicia; 
and  doubtless  from  the  palm-groves,  which  still  strike  the 
eye  of  the  traveler  in  the  neighborhood  of  Jaffa  and  Beyrout, 
and  which  there  probably  first  met  the  eye  of  the  Western 
world,  whether  Greek,  Roman,  or  Mediaeval,  came  the  name 
of  Phoenicia,  or  "  the  Land  of  Palms."  Hence,  too,  at  least 
in  recent  times,  came  the  branches,  which  distinguished  the 
pilgrims  of  Palestine,  from  those  of  Rome,  Compostella  and 
Canterbury,  by  the  name  of  "Palmer."  But  the  climate  of 
the  hill-country  must  always  have  been -too  cold  for  their  fre- 
quent growth.     Those  on  OUvet  most  likely  were  in  gardens ; 


518  GEOLOGY   OF   PALESTINE. 

the  very  fact  of  the  name  of  the  "  City  of  Pabn-trees,"  ap- 
plied as  a  distinguishing  epithet  to  Jericho — tlie  allusion  to 
the  palm-tree  of  En-gedi,  as  though  found  there  and  not  else- 
where^— the  mention  of  the  palm-tree  of  Deborah  at  Bethel, 
as  a  well-known  and  solitary  landmark — probaljly  the  same 
spot  as  that  called  Baal-Tamar,  "the  sanctuary  of  the  palm" 
— all  indicate  that  the  palm  was  on  the  whole  then,  as  now, 
the  exception  and  not  the  rule. 

Combined  with  the  palm  in  ancient  times  was  the  sycamore. 
This  too  was  a  tree  of  the  plain, — chiefly  of  the  plain  of  the 
sea-coast — also,  as  we  know  by  one  celebrated  instance,  in  the 
plains  of  Jericho.  As  Jericho  derived  its  name  from  the  palms, 
so  did  Sj^cominopolis — the  modern  Caipha, — from  the  grove 
of  sycamores,  some  of  which  still  remain  in  its  neighborhood. 

There  is  one  other  tree,  which  is  only  to  be  found  on  the 
tropical  banks  of  the  Jordan,  but  too  beautiful  to  be  omitted ; 
the  oleander,  with  its  bright  blossoms  and  dark-green  leaves, 
giving  the  aspect  of  a  rich  garden  to  any  spot  where  it  grows. 
It  is,  however,  never  alluded  to  in  the  Scriptures,  unless,  as  has 
been  conjectured,  it  is  the  "tree  planted  by  the  ^  streams^  of 
water,  which  bringeth  forth  his  fruit  in  due  season,"  and 
"whose  leaf  shall  not  wither.'''' 

The  geological  structure  of  Palestine,  as  of  Greece,  is  al- 
most entirely  limestone.  The  few  exceptions  are  in  the  Valley 
of  the  Jordan,  which  must  b*e  considered  in  its  own  place. 
This  rocky  character  of  the  whole  country  has  not  been  with- 
out its  historical  results. 

Not  only  does  the  thirsty  character  of  the  whole  East  give 
a  peculiar  expression  to  any  places  where  water  may  be  had, 
l)ut  the  rocky  soil  preserves  their  identity,  and  the  wells  of 
Palestine  serve  as  the  links  by  which  each  successive  age  is 
bound  to  the  other,  in  a  manner  which  at  first  sight  would 
he  thought  almost  incredible.  The  name  by  which  they  are 
called  of  itself  indicates  their  permanent  character.  The 
"  well"  of  the  Hebrew  and  the  Arab  is  carefully  distinguished 
from  the  "spring.^'     The  spring  (Jain')  is  the  bright,  open 


THE   WELLS   OF   PALESTINE.  519 

source — the  "  eye  "  of  the  landscape — such  as  bubbles  up 
amongst  the  crags  of  Sinai,  or  rushes  forth  in  a  copious  stream 
from  En-gedi  oi  from  Jericho.  But  the  well  (heer)  is  the  deep 
hole  hored  far  under  the  rocky  surface  by  the  art  of  man — the 
earliest  traces  of  that  art  which  these  regions  exhibit.  By 
these  orifices  at  the  foot  of  the  hills,  surrounded  by  their 
broad  margin  of  smooth  stone  or  marble — a  rough  mass  of 
stone  covering  the  top — have  always  been  gathered  whatever 
signs  of  animation  or  civilization  the  neighborhood  afforded. 
They  w^ere  the  scenes  of-  the  earliest  contentions  of  the  shep- 
herd-patriarchs with  the  inhabitants  of  the  land ;  the  places 
of  meeting  with  the  women  who  came  down  to  draw  water 
from  their  rocky  depths — of  Eliezer  with  Rebecca,  of  Jacob 
with  Rachel,  of  Moses  with  Zipporah,  of  Christ  with  the 
woman  of  Samaria.  They  were  the  natural  halting-places  of 
great  caravans,  or  wayfaring  men,  as  when  Moses  gathered  to- 
gether the  people  to  the  well  of  Moab,  which  the  princes  dug 
with  their  sceptered  staves,  and  therefore  the  resort  of  the 
plunderers  of  the  desert,  of  "  the  noise  of  archers  in  the 
places  of  drawing  water."  What  they  Avere  ages  ago  in  each 
of  these  respects  they  are  still.  The  shepherds  may  still  be 
seen  leading  their  flocks  of  sheep  and  goats  to  their  margin ; 
the  women  still  come  with  their  pitchers  and  talk  to  those 
"  who  sit  by  the  well ; "  the  traveler  still  looks  forward  to  it 
as  his  resting-place  for  the  night,  if  it  be  in  a  place  of  safety; 
or,  if  it  be  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  wilder  Bedouins,  is 
hurried  on  by  his  dragoman  or  his  escort  without  halting  a 
moment ;  and  thus,  by  their  means,  not  only  is  the  image  of 
the  ancient  life  of  the  country  preserved,  but  the  scenes  of 
sacred  events  are  identified,  which  under  any  other  circum- 
stances would  have  pecished.  The  wells  of  Beersheba  in  the 
wide  frontier-valley  of  Palestine  are  indisputable  witnesses  of 
the  life  of  Abraham.  The  well  of  Jacob,  at  Shechem,  is  a 
monument  of  the  earliest  and  of  the  latest  events  of  sacred 
history,  of  the  caution  of  the  prudent  patriarch,  no  less  than 
of  the  freedom  of  the  Gospel  there  proclaimed  by  Christ. 


520  THE   TOMBS    OF   PALESTINE. 

Next  to  the  wells  of  Syria,  the  most  authentic  memorials 
of  the  past  times  are  the  sepulchres,  and  partly  for  the  same 
reason. 

The  toml)S  of  ancient  Greece  or  Rome  lined  the  public  roads 
with  funeral  pillars  or  towers.  Grassy  graves  and  marl)le 
monuments  fill  the  churchyards  and  churches  of  Christian 
Europe.  But  the  sepulchres  of  Palestine  were,  like  the  hab- 
itations of  its.  earliest  inhabitants,  hewn  out  of  the  living  lime- 
stone rock,  and  therefore  indestructible  as  the  rock  itself.  In 
this  respect  they  resembled,  though  on  a  smaller  scale,  the 
tombs  of  Upper  Egypt,  and  as  there  the  traveler  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  is  confronted  with  the  names  and  records  of 
men  who  lived  thousands  of  years  ago,  so  also,  in  the  excava- 
tions of  the  valleys  which  surround  or  approach  Shiloh,  She- 
chem.  Bethel,  and  Jerusalem,  he  knows  that  he  sees  what 
were  the  last  resting-places  of  the  generations  contemporary 
with  Joshua,  Samuel,  and  David.  And  the  example  of  Egypt 
shows  tha*t  the  identification  of  these  sepulchres  even  with 
their  individual  occupants  is  not  so  improbable  as  might  be 
otherwise  supposed.  If  the  graves  of  Rameses  and  Osirei  can 
still  be  ascertained,  there  is  nothing  improbable  in  the  thought 
that  the  tombs  of  the  patriarchs  may  have  survived  the  lapse 
of  twenty  or  thirty  centuries.  The  rocky  cave  on  Mount 
Hor  must  be  at  least  the  spot  believed  by  Josephus  to  mark 
the  grave  of  Aaron.  The  tomb  of  Joseph  must  be  near  one 
of  the  two  monuments  pointed  out  as  such  in  the  opening  of 
the  vale  of  Shechem.  The  sepulchre  which  is  called  the  tomb 
of  Rachel  exactly  agrees  with  the  spot  described  as  "a  little 
way"  from  Bethlehem.  The  tomb  of  David,  which  was 
known  with  certainty  at  the  time  of  the  Christian  era,  may 
perhaps  still  be  found  under  the  mosque  which  bears  his  name 
on  the  modern  Zion.  Above  all,  the  cave  of  Machpelah  is 
concealed,  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt,  by  the  mosque  at  He- 
bron. But  with  these  exceptions,  we  must  rest  satisfied  rather 
with  the  general  than  the  particular  interest  of  the  tombs  of 
Palestine.     The  proof  of  identity  in  each  special  instance  de- 


THE   TOMBS   OF   PALESTINE.  523 

pends  almost  entirely  on  the  locality.  Instead  of  the  acres 
of  inscriptions  which  cover  the  tombs  of  Egypt,  not  a  single 
letter  has  been  found  in  any  ancient  sepulchre  of  Palestine ; 
and  tradition  is,  in  this  class  of  monuments,  found  to  be  un- 
usually fallacious.  Although  some  of  those  which  are  des- 
cribed as  genuine  by  Jewish  authorities  can  neither  be  rejected 
nor  received  with  positive  assurance,  such  as  the  alleged  sep- 
ulchres of  Deborah,  Barak,  Abinoam,  Jael,  and  Heber,  at 
Kedesh ;  and  of  Phineas,  Eleazar,  and  Joshua,  m  the  eastern 
ranges  of  Shechem ;  yet  the  passion  of  the  Mussulman  con- 
querors of  Syria  for  erecting  mosques  over  the  tombs  of 
celebrated  saints  (and  such  to  them  are  all  the  heroes  of  the 
Old  Testament)  has  created  so  many  fictitious  sepulchres,  as 
to  throw  doubt  on  all.  Such  are  the  tombs  of  Seth  and  Noah, 
in  the  vale  of  the  Lebanon ;  of  Moses,  on  the  west  of  the 
Jordan,  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  Mosaic  narrative ;  of 
Samuel,  on  the  top  of  Nebi-Samuel ;  of  Sidon  and  Zebu- 
Ion,  near  Zidon  and  Tyre ;  of  Hoshea,  in  Gilead ;  of  Jouah, 
thrice  over,  in  Judsea,  in  Phoenicia,  and  at  Nineveh. 

Even  the  most  genuine  sepulchres  are  received  as  such  by 
the  highest  Mussulman  authorities  on  grounds  the  most  pue- 
rile. The  mosque  of  Hebron  is  justly  claimed  by  them  as  the 
sanctuary  of  the  tomb  of  Abraham,  but  their  reason  for  be- 
lieving it  is  thus  gravely  stated  in  the  "  Torch  of  Hearts," 
a  work  written  by  the  learned  Ali,  son  of  Jafer-ar-Rayz,  "  on 
the  authenticity  of  the  tombs  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob." 
"I  rely,"  he  says,  "on  the  testimony  of  Abu  Horiiiruh,  who 
thus  expresses  himself: — It  was  said  by  the  Apostle  of  God 
'When  the  angel  Gabriel  made  me  take  the  nocturnal  flight 
to  Jerusalem,  we  passed  over  the  tomb  of  Abraham,  and  he 
said.  Descend,  and  make  a  prayer  with  two  genuflections,  for 
here  is  the  sepulchre  of  thy  father  Abraham.  Then  we  passed 
Bethlehem,  and  he  said.  Descend,  for  here  was  born  thy 
brother  Jesus.     Then  we  came  to  Jerusalem.'  " 

It  may  be  well  to  notice  the  probable  cause  of  this  uncer- 
tainty of  Jewish,  as  contrasted  with  the  certainty  of  Egyptian 


MODERN  SAIDA  OR  SIDON. 
The  seat  of  an  American  Missionary  station,  and  even  now  a  place  of  a  little  importance.     In  the  background 
may  be  seen  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  Sidon  founded  by  the  eldest  son  of  Canaan.     It  was  visited  by  St.  Paul. 


THE   CAVES   OF    PALESTINE.  525 

and,  we  might  add,  of  European  tradition  on  tlie  subject  of 
tombs.  However  strongly  the  reverence  for  sacred  graves 
may  have  been  developed  in  the  Jews  of  later  times,  the 
ancient  Israelites  never  seem  to  have  entertained  the  same 
feeling  of  regard  for  the  resting-places  or  the  remains  of  their 
illustrious  dead,  as  was  carried  to  so  high  a  pitch  in  the  earlier 
Pagan  and  in  the  later  Christian  world.  "•  Let  me  bury  my 
dead  out  of  my  sight,'' — "  No  man  knoweth  of  his  sepulchre 
unto  this  day,"  express,  if  not  the  general  feeling  of  the  Jew- 
ish nation,  at  least  the  general  sph'it  of  the  old  Testament. 
Every  one  knows  the  most  signal  instance  in  which  this 
indifference  was  manifested.  Somewhere,  doubtless,  near  the 
walls  of  the  old  Jerusalem,  or  buried  under  its  ruins,  is  the 
"  new  sepulchre  hewn  in  the  rock,"  where  "  the  body  of  Jesus 
was  laid,"  but  the  precise  spot,  never  indicated  by  the  evan- 
gelists, was  probably  unknown  to  the  next  generation,  and 
will,  in  all  likelihood,  remain  a  matter  of  doubt  always.  In 
this  respect  the  controversy  regarding  the  Holy  Sepulchre  is 
an  illustration  of  a  general  fact  in  sacred  topography.  Mod- 
ern pilgrims  are  troubled  at  the  supposition  that  such  a 
locality  should  have  been  lost.  The  Israelites  and  the  early 
Christians  would  have  been  surprised  if  it  had  been  preserved. 
But  the  tombs  are  only  one  class  of  a  general  peculiarity,  re- 
sulting from  the  physical  structure  of  Palestine. 

Like  all  limestone  formations,  the  hills  of  Palestine  abound 
in  caves.  How  great  a  part  the  caverns  of  Greece  played  in 
the  history  and  mythology  of  that  country  is  well  known.  In 
one  respect,  indeed,  those  of  Palestine  were  never  likely  to 
have  been  of  the  same  importance,  because,  not  being  stalac- 
titic,  they  could  not  so  forcibly  suggest  to  the  Canaanite 
wanderers  the  images  of  sylvan  deities,  which  the  Grecian 
shepherds  naturally  found  in  the  grottoes  of  Parnassus  and 
Hymettus.  But  from  other  points  of  view  we  never  lose 
sight  of  them.  In  these  innumerable  rents,  and  cavities,  and 
holes,  we  see  the  origin  of  the  sepulchres,  which  still,  partly 
natural,  and  partly  artificial,  perforate  the  rocky  walls  of  the 


52 G  THE   OAVES   OF   PALESTINE. 

Judsean  vaileys ;  the  long  line  oi  the  tombs,  of  which  I  have 
just  spoken,  beginning  with  the  cave  of  Machpelah  and  ending 
with  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  which  was  "  a  cave,  and  a  stone 
lay  upon  it,"  and  "the  sepulchre  hewn  in  the  rock,  wherein 
never  man  before  was  laid."  We  see  in  them  also,  the  hiding- 
places  which  served  sometimes  for  defence  of  robbers  and 
insurgents,  sometimes  for  the  refuge  of  those  "of  whom  the 
world  was  not  worthy ; "  the  prototype  of  the  catacombs  of 
the  early  Christians,  of  the  caverns  of  the  Vaudois  and  the 
Covenanters.  The  cave  of  Lot  at  Zoar ;  the  cave  of  the  five 
kings  at  Makkedah ;  the  "caves  and  dens  and  strongholds," 
and  "rocks"  and  "pits"  and  "holes,  in  which  the  Israelites 
took  shelter  from  the  Midianites  in  the  time  of  Gideon,  from 
the  Philistines  in  the  time  of  Saul ;  the  cleft  of  the  cliff  Etam, 
into  which  Samson  went  down  to  escape  the  vengeance  of  his 
enemies ;  the  caves  of  David  at  AduUam,  and  at  Maon,  and 
of  Saul  at  En-gedi ;  the  cave  in  which  Obadiah  hid  the  proph- 
ets of  the  Lord ;  the  caves  of  the  robber-hordes  above  the 
plain  of  Gennesareth ;  the  sepulchral  caves  of  the'  Gadarene 
demoniacs ;  the  cave  of  Jotapata,  where  Josephus  and  his 
countrymen  concealed  themselves  in  their  last  struggle, — con- 
tinue from  first  to  last  what  has  truly  been  called  the  "cave- 
life"  of  the  Israelite  nation.  The  stream  of  their  national 
existence,  like  the  actual  streams  of  the  Grecian  rivers,  fi*om 
time  to  time  disappears  from  the  light  of  day,  and  runs  under 
ground  in  these  subterraneous  recesses, — to  burst  forth  again 
when  the  appointed  moment  arrives, — a  striking  type,  as  it  is 
a  remarkable  instance,  of  the  preservation  of  the  spiritual 
life  of  the  chosen  people,  "burning,  but  not  consumed," 
"  chastened,  but  not  killed." 

In  older  times,  there  is  no  proof  that  these  ancient  grottoes 
were  used  for  worship,  either  Canaanitish  or  Israelite.  The 
"green  trees,"  the  "high  places,"  served  alike  for  the  altars 
of  the  Lord,  and  for  those  of  Baal  and  Ashtaroth.  The  free 
and  open  heavens  for  the  one  worship,  the  unrestricted  sight 
of  the  sun  and  the  host  of  heaven  for  the  other,  were  alike 


THE  CAVES   OF   PALESTINE.  527 

alien  to  the  sepulchral  darkness  of  the  holes  and  caverns  of 
the  rocks.  The  one  instance  of  a  cave,  dedicated  to  religious 
worship  before  the  fall  of  the  Jewish  nation,  is  that  at  the 
sources  of  the  Jordan,  consecrated  by  foreign  settlers  as  a 
sanctuary  of  their  own  Grecian  Pan.  But  the  moment  that  the 
religion  of  Palestine  fell  into  the  hands  of  Europeans,  it  is 
hardly  too  much  to  say  that,  as  far  as  sacred  traditions  are 
concerned,  it  became  "a  religion  of  caves" — of  those  very 
caves  which  in  earlier  times  had  been  unhallowed  by  any  re- 
ligious influence  whatever.  Wherever  a  sacred  association 
had  to  be  fixed,  a  cave  was  immediately  selected  or  found  as 
its  home.  First  in  antiquity  is  the  grotto  of  Bethlehem,  al- 
ready in  the  second  century  regarded  by  popular  belief  as  the 
scene  of  the  nativity.  Next  comes  the  grotto  on  Mount 
Olivet,  selected  as  the  scene  of  our  Lord's  last  conversations 
before  the  ascension.  These  two  caves,  as  Eusebius  emphat- 
icall}^  asserts,  were  the  fir"st  seats  of  the  worship  established 
by  the  Empress  Helena,  to  which  was  shortly  afterwards  added 
a  third — the  sacred  cave  of  the  Sepulchre.  To  these  were 
rapidly  added  the  cave  of  the  Invention  of  the  Cross,  the  cave 
of  the  Annunciation  at  Nazareth,  the  cave  of  the  Agony  at 
Gethsemane,  the  cave  oT  the  Baptist  in  the  "  wilderness  of 
St.  John,"  the  cave  of  the  Shej)herds  of  Bethlehem.  And 
then  again,  partly  perhaps  the  cause,  partly  the  effect  of  this 
consecration  of  grottoes,  began  the  caves  of  hermits.  There 
was  the  cave  of  St.  Pelagia  on  Mount  Olivet,  the  cave  of  St. 
Jerome,  St.  Paula,  and  St.  Eustochium  at  Bethlehem,  the  cave 
of  St.  Saba  in  the  ravines  of  the  Kedron,  the  remarkable  cells 
hewn  or  found  in  the  precipices  of  the  Quarantania  or  Mount 
of  the  Temptation  above  Jericho.  In  some  few  instances 
this  selection  of  grottoes  would  coincide  with  the  events  thus 
intended  to  be  perpetuated,  as  for  example  the  hiding-places 
of  the  prophets  on  Carmel,  and  the  sepulchres  of  the  patri- 
archs and  of  our  Lord.  But  in  most  instances  the  choice  is 
made  without  the  sanction,  in  some  instances,  in  defiance,  of 
the  sacred  narrative.     No  one  would  infer  from  the  mention 


528  THE   CAVES   OF   BETHLEHEM. 

of  the  "inn"  or  "house"  of  the  Nativity,  or  of  the  entrance 
of  the  Angel  of  the  Annunciation  to  Maiy,  that  those  events 
took  phice  in  caves.  The  very  fact  that,  in  the  celebrated 
legend,  it  is  a  house,  and  not  a  grotto,  which  is  transj^lanted 
to  Loretto,  is  an  indication  of  what  would  be  the  natural  be- 
lief. All  our  common  feelings  are  repugnant  to  the  transfer- 
ence of  the  scenes  of  the  Agony  and  Ascension  from  the  free 
and  open  sides  of  the  mountain  to  the  narrow  seclusion  of 
subterraneous  excavations.  It  is  possible,  as  we  are  often  re- 
minded, that  the  very  fact  of  caverns  being  so  frequently  used 
for  places  of  dwelling  and  resort  in  Palestine,  would  account 
for  the  absence  of  a  more  specific  allusion  to  them ;  for  grot- 
toes are  stables  at  Bethlehem  still ;  and  the  lower  stories  of 
houses  at  Nazareth  are  excavated  in  the  rock.  But  the  more 
probable  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact,  that  after  the 
devastating  storm  of  'the  Roman  conquest  had  swept  away 
the  traces  of  sacred  recollections  in  human  habitations,  the 
inhabitants  or  pilgrims  who  came  to  seek  them,  would  seek 
and  find  them  in  the  most  strongly  marked  features  of  the 
neighborhood.  These,  as  we  have  seen,  would  be  the  caves. 
Helena,  by  the  consecration  of  two  of  the  most  remarkable, 
would  set  the  example  ;  the  practice  of  the  hermits,  already 
begun  in  the  rock-hewn  tombs  of  Egypt,  would  encourage  the 
belief  of  this  sanctity.  And  thus  the  universality  of  the  con- 
nection between  grottoes  and  sacred  events,  which  in  later 
times  provokes  suspicion,  in  early  times  would  only  render  the 
minds  of  pilgrims  more  callous  to  the  improbabilities  of  each 
particular  instance. 

I  have  dwelt  at  length  on  the  history  of  the  caves,  because 
it  is  the  only  instance  of  a  close  connection  between  the  his- 
tory or  the  religion  of  Palestine,  and  any  of  its  more  special 
natural  features.  In  some  few  cases,  the  local  legends  may 
be  traced  to  similar  peculiarities. 

The  stones  called  "Elijah's  melons,"  on  Mount  Carmel,  and 
"the  Virgin  Mary's  peas,"  near  Bethlehem,  are  instances  of 
crystallization  well  known  in  limestone  formations.     They  are 


THE  KOCKS   OF   PALESTINE.  529 

SO  called,  being  the  supposed  produce  of  those  two  plots 
turned  into  stone,  from  the  refusal  of  the  owners  to  supply 
the  wants  of  the  prophet  and  the  saint.  Another  celebrated 
example  may  be' noticed  in  the  petrified  lentils  of  the  work- 
men at  the  great  Pyramid,  as  seen  by  Strabo  at  its  base.  In 
all  three  instances  the  traces  of  these  once  well  known  relics 
have  now  almost  entirely  disappeared. 

Another  peculiarity  of  the  limestone  rock  has  given  birth 
to  the  legendary  scene  of  the  destruction  of  Sennacherib's 
army.  .  Two  pits  were  formerly  pointed  out  near  Bethlehem 
as  the  grave  of  the  Assyrian  host.  One  still  remains.  It  is 
an  irregular  opening  in  the  rocky  ground,  exactly  similar  to 
those  which  may  be  seen  by  hundreds,  in  the  wild  limestone 
district,  called  the  Karst,  above  Trieste.  The  real  scene  of 
the  event  isj^robably  elsewhere. 

The  limestone,  which  is  usually  white  or  gray,  is  occasion- 
ally streaked  with  red.  It  is  in  these  reddish  veins  that  the 
pilgrims  fancied  they  saw  the  marks  of  the  drops  of  blood  in 
the  so-called  Scala-Santa ;  or  on  the  rock  near  Jerusalem,  of 
late  years  pointed  out  as  the  scene  of  the  martyrdom  of 
Stephen. 

The  black  and  white  stones — usually  called  volcanic — found 
along  the  shores  of  the  sea  of  Gahiee,  have  been  transformed 
by  Jewish  fancy  into  the  traces  of  the  tears  of  Jacob  in  search 
of  Joseph. 

It  is  not  of  the  nature  of  limestone  rocks  to  assume  fan- 
tastic forms,  and  in  this  respect  the  contrast  between  the 
legends  of  Palestine  and  Sinai  is  most  apparent.  Some  few 
however  there  are  ;  their  very  slightness  indicating  that  they 
have  not?  been  the  occasion,  but  only  the  handles  of  the  stories 
appended  to  them.  The  cavity  of  the  footmark  on  Mount 
Olivet;  the  fissures  in  the  rocks  "that  were  rent,"  and  the 
supposed  entombment  of  Adam's  skull,  in  Golgotha  ;  the  pet- 
rifaction of  the  ass  at  Bethany ;  the  sinuous  mark  of  the 
virgin's  girdle  by  Gethsemane ;    the   impression  of  Elijah's 

form  on  the  rocky  bank  by  the  roadside,  near  the  convent  of 
32 


530  PALESTINE  THE   CRADLE   OF   RELIGION. 

Mar  Elias,  between  Bethlehem  and  Jerusalem,  are  perhaps  the 
only  objects  in  which  the  form  of  the  rocks  can  be  supposed 
to  have  suggested  the  legends.  But  another  place  will  occur 
for  speaking  of  these  more  particularly. 

It  is  worth  while  to  enumerate  these  instances,  trifling  as 
they  are,  in  order  to  illustrate  the  slightness  of  foundation 
which  the  natural  features  of  Palestine  afford  for  the  mythol- 
ogy, almost  inevitably  springing  out  of  so  long  a  series  of  re- 
markable events.  And  this  is  in  fact  the  final  conclusion 
which  is  to  be  drawn  from  the  character,  or  rather  want  of 
character,  presented  by  the  general  scenery.  If  the  first  feel- 
ing be  disappointment,  yet  the  second  may  well  be  thankful- 
ness. There  is  little  in  these  hills  and  valleys  on  which  the 
imagination  can  fasten.  Whilst  the  great  seats  of  Greek  and 
Roman  religion — at  Delphi  and  Lebadea,  by  the  lakes  of 
Alba  and  of  Aricia, — strike  even  the  indifferent  traveler  as 
deeply  impressive — Shiloh  and  Bethel  on  the  other  hand,  so 
long  the  sanctuaries  and  oracles  of  God,  almost  escape  the 
notice  even  of  the  zealous  antiquarian  in  the  maze  of  undis- 
tinguished hills  which  encompass  them.  The  first  view  of 
Olivet  impresses  us  chiefly  by  its  bare  matter-of-fact  appear- 
ance ;  the  first  approach  to  the  hills  of  Judsea  reminds  the 
English  traveler  not  of  the  most  but  of  the  least  striking  por- 
tions of  the  mountains  of  his  own  country.  Yet  all  this 
renders  the  Holy  Land  the  fitting  cradle  of  a  religion  which 
expressed  itself  not  through  the  voices  of  rustling  forests,  or 
the  clefts  of  mysterious  precipices,  but  through  the  souls  and 
hearts  of  men, — which  was  destined  to  have  no  home  on  earth, 
least  of  all  in  its  own  birthplace, — which  has  attained  its 
full  dimensions  only  in  proportion  as  it  has  travelled  further 
from  its  original  source,  to  the  daily  life  and  homes  of  nations 
as  far  removed  from  Palestine  in  thought  and  feeling,  as  they 
are  in  climate  and  latitude — which  alone,  of  all  religions, 
claims  to  be  founded  not  on  fancy  or  feeling,  but  on  fact 
and  truth. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

A  COMPARATIVE  SURVEY  OF  SYRIA. 

BY   CARL   RITTER,    PROFESSOR   IN   THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   BERLIN. 

The  Three  Routes  into  Palestine  from  the  South — Insignificant  Size  of  Palestine 
— Perpetuation  of  tlie  Bond  which  Binds  the  Jew  to  his  Former  Home — 
Sacredness  of  Palestine  in  the  Eyes  of  the  Mahometans — Close  Connection 
between  the  Local  Geography  of  the  Holy  Land  and  the  Mental  Character- 
istics of  the  People — The  Philosophy  which  Underlies  This — Syria,  how 
Bounded — Palestine's  Position  in  Relation  to  the  Ancient  World — Palestine 
Viewed  in  Detail. 

ROM  the  Sinai  Peninsula,  whicli  we  may  regard  as 
the  vestibule  of  Palestine,  we  advance  into  the 
Promised  Land  by  three  routes :  the  first  along  the 
shore  from  Gaza  to  Askelon ;  the  second  on  the  track  of  the 
pilgrims,  over  the  very  back  of  the  Tih  plateau,  in  a  path 
more  or  less  trodden  in  the  most  ancient  as  well  as  in  compar- 
atively modern  and  in  most  recent  times — gradually  exchang- 
ing the  savage  waste  for  the  deepening  green  of  the  outlying 
southern  eminences  of  the  Jebel  Chalil  or  Hebron,  once  in- 
habited by  a  thronging  population,  and  covered  with  cities  ; 
and  the  third  by  the  route  which  has  been  re-opened  within 
our  days — the  most  easterly  one  of  all — that  of  Wadi  Musa, 
through  the  depression  of  the  Araba  and  el-Ghor  to  the  south- 
ern extremity  of  the  Dead  Sea,  where  the  great  gorge  which 
runs  through  the  whole  length  of  Palestine  finds  its  key,  and 
solves  the  entire  physical  character  of  the  country. 

Pursuing  the  habitual  manner  in  which  I  have  dealt  with 
other  countries,  I  shall  not  undertake  to  limit  myself  to  such 
an  exhaustive  account  of  Palestine  as  would  meet  the  wants 


532  SMALL   SIZE   OF  PALESTINE. 

of  a  biblical  student ;  this  has  been  well  and  thoroughly  done 
by  H.  Reland  and  by  K.  von  Raumer.  We  have  to  do  with  a 
district  which  does  not  reveal  itself  to  us  in  its  highest  inter- 
ests when  studied  in  its  own  special  sections  and  subdivisions, 
but  in  its  relation  to  all  the  countries  which  surround  it,  and 
in  fact  to  the  entire  world ;  and  with  a  district,  too,  where  all 
the  phenomena  of  national  and  individual  life  are  so  inextri- 
cably mingled  with  those  of  the  physical  conditions  of  the 
country,  that  the  result  is  a  blending  of  characteristics  so  va- 
ried and  comprehensive  that  there  is  not  a  land  or  a  nation 
which  does  not  find  something  of  itself  reflected  there. 

As  it  is  nowhere  mere  rough  power  or  external  greatness 
which  gains  sway  in  the  higher  departments  of  affairs,  but  the 
inward  force,  the  soul  of  fire,  the  strong  heart,  so  it  is  with  the 
might  and  the  authority  of  territorial  domains.  Palestine  be- 
lonsfs,  so  far  as  mere  size  is  concerned,  to  the  smallest  and 
most  insignificant  countries  on  the  earth ;  but  its  name  is  one 
of  those  most  often  spoken  and  most  universally  loved.  Wher- 
ever Christian  men  are  found,  there  it  is  a  hallowed  name,  to 
which  sacred  thoughts,  feelings,  associations,  and  convictions 
cling,  and  which  is  bound  up  with  all  that  is  most  valued  by 
the  judgment  or  dear  to  the  heart.  And  wherever  heathen 
nations  are  found  upon  the  earth,  there  this  Holy  Land  is  yet 
to  be  loved,  until  all  eyes  shall  rest  upon  it  as  the  birthplace 
of  the  true  faith,  and  the  scene  of  the  grandest  revelations 
ever  made  by  God  to  man. 

And  even  the  very  banished  children  of  Palestine,  who 
never  advanced  beyond  the  knowledge  of  God's  law^  and  never 
accepted  the  fulfilling  of  that  law  in  the  words  and  works  of 
the  Saviour  of  mankind,  are  still  bound  to  the  country  which 
their  fathers  loved,  and  conquered,  and  possessed.  Their  cir- 
cle of  ideas  does  not  yet  free  itself  from  the  land  from  which 
they  have  been  driven  out.  The  patriarchal  ties — the  belief 
in  Jehovah  the  one  God  of  their  ancestors — the  temple  built 
on  Moriah — the  splendid  procession  of  judges,  prophets,  law- 
givers, psalmists,  and  kings — the  very  conquest  which  subdued 


ATMOSPHERE   OF   OTHER   AGENCIES.  633 

their  nation,  and  the  banishment  which  made  them  exiles,  have 
conspired  to  perpetuate  the  bond  which  binds  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple to  their  former  home.  Thither  hundreds  of  Hebrews 
even  now  wander  back,  after  troubled  and  shipwrecked  lives, 
to  find  in  the  land  of  their  fathers  a  peaceful  resting-place, 
at  least  for  their  bones.  They  come  from  the  east  as  well  as 
from  the  west,  longing  for  peace,  and  lay  themselves  down  in 
a  land  which  is  theirs  only  as  they  may  purchase  some  little 
fragment  of  it,  making  it  their  most  cherished  wish  to  die  and 
be  buried  under  the  sacred  shadow  of  Mount  Moriah. 

Even  their  conquerors  and  oppressors,  the  hard  and  wilful 
Arabs  and  Turks,  who  now  possess  the  land,  share  in  the  same 
fancy,  which,  though  it  be  a  folly,  yet  is  a  human  and  a  touch- 
ing one.  The  Mohammedan  places  Palestine  only  second  in 
sacredness  to  the  birthplace  of  the  prophet ;  and  Jerusalem 
they  designate  as  "  el-Kods,"  or  more  exactly,  "  el-Guds,"  the 
Holy  City.  The  pilgrimage  to  the  Haram,  i.e.  to  the  mosque 
which  the  Caliph  Omar  erected  on  the  site  of  the  temple  of 
Solomon,  is  the  most  meritorious  one  which  he  can  make,  ex- 
cepting that  to  Mecca. 

"Within  the  narrow  limits  of  Palestine  we  must  look  for  the 
foundations  of  that  kingdom  of  truth  as  well  as  error,  which 
has  now  become  a  subject  of  historic  inquiry :  we  must  trace 
the  latest  results  to  their  primitive  causes  in  the  geographical 
conditions  of  the  country :  for  even  here  there  is  opportunity 
for  such  agents  as  the  soil  under  man's  foot,  and  the  atmos- 
phere over  his  head  to  have  influence.  If  every  garden  plot 
owes  a  part  of  the  rapid  progress  in  flowering  and  in  fruitage 
to  the  skillful  and  the  careful  hand  of  the  gardener,  can  not  ev- 
ery land  in  God's  wide  creation  trace,  under  his  wise  direction, 
some  measure  of  mutual  action  and  reaction  between  the  coun- 
try and  the  people  who  inhabit  it  ?  Our  historians  have  many 
things  yet  to  learn,  and  even  yet  they  continue  to  fall  into 
one-sided  speculations,  which  betray  them  and  lead  them 
astray.  But  here  is  one  elemental  truth  :  history  does  not  lie 
in  a  domain  adjoining  nature,  so  to  speak,  but  actually  within 


534     CONNECTION  BETWEEN  GEOGRAPHY  AND  HISTORY. 

the  bosom  of  nature :  history  and  nature  are  at  one,  as  God 
looks  down  upon  them  from  his  canopy  of  stars.  In  study- 
ing the  human  soul,  the  mode  of  its  training,  the  way  of  its 
working^and  that  is  history — we  can  not  leave  out  of  our 
view  the  outward  field  in  which  it  finds  its  home,  the  world 
where  it  meets  the  phenomena  which  it  investigates.  In  spite 
of  the  self-confidence  of  that  pretence  which  science  sometimes 
makes  in  the  person  of  some  of  her  votaries,  of  finding  all 
that  she  needs  withi^i  the  soul  of  man,  and  in  a  mere  world  of 
subjective  realities,  we  may  boldly  assert,  that  a  close  study  of 
the  outward  world,  as  the  soul's  training-place,  is  the  only  true 
key  to  history. 

And  such  a  close  connection  between  tlie  local  geography  of 
the  place  and  the  mental  characteristics  of  the  people,  is  espe- 
cially to  be  traced  where  there  was  the  peculiar  simplicity  and 
closeness  to  nature  of  the  patriarchal  inhabitants  of  Palestine : 
a  simplicity  and  an  intimate  communion  with  the  fields  and 
the  waters  and  the  skies,  traceable  alike  in  the  meadows  of 
Mesopotamia,  under  the  Assyrian  heavens,  and  in  the  land  to 
which  the  first  shepherds  found  their  way ;  ahkOi  on  the  Eu- 
phrates and  on  the  Jordan,  at  the  foot  of  Ararat  and  of  Her- 
mon.  To  the  same  close  connection  can  be  traced  the  prim- 
itive settlers'  wanderings  all  over  Canaan,  their  incursions  into 
Arabian  territory,  and  their  temporary  sojourn  in  Egypt,  then 
as  much  a  center  in  respect  to  the  fertility  of  its  soil  as  to  in- 
tellectual culture.  To  the  same  may  be  traced  the  necessity 
which  called  for  the  giving  of  the  law  amid  the  thunders  of 
Sinai,  and  the  wandering  of  Israel  through  the  Arabian  desert. 
Thither  also  is  traceable  the  rise  of  twelve  tribes  in  a  land 
flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  hard  by  the  rocky  crags  of  Pe- 
tra,  Judsea,  and  Ephraim.  Here,  too,  we  find  the  significance 
o±  the  Jordan  Valley,  the  deep  course  of  the  Kedron,  and  the 
gorge  which,  as  it  opened,  swallowed  up  Sodom.  To  this  we 
must  ascribe  the  isolation  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  towering  up 
of  Sion  and  Moriah,  as  if  to  call  the  whole  world  unto  them. 
In  this,  too,  we  find  the  meaning  of  the  harbors,  the  seas,  the 


686    THE  RELATIONS  OF  LANDSCAPE  TO  A  PEOPLE. 

cedars  of  Lebanon,  the  dew  upon  Hermon,  the  fruitful  vale  of 
Sharon,  the  flowery  plain  of  Esdraelon,  the  beautiful  landscape 
of  Galilee  dotted  with  lakes,  and  the  barren  deserts  which  gird 
the  plains  and  the  palm  trees  of  Jericho. 

Who  can  deny  that  there  are  individual  features  in  the  physi- 
cal character  of  a  country  which  are  not  to  be  merely  grouped 
as  inarticulate  and ,  dead  appendages  to  its  soil,  but  are  to  be 
studied  in  their  strong  reflex  action  on  the  life  of  the  people, 
affecting  local  traditions,  affecting  history,  affecting  the  life  of 
nations  and  states,  affecting  religion  and  all  thought?  And 
if  our  earth  does  not  swing  around  its  sun,  a  mere  dead,  inor- 
ganic planet,  but  an  organism,  a  living  work  from  the  hand  of  a 
living  God,  there  must  be  a  similar  close  and  vital  connection, 
like  that  between  body  and  soul,  between  nature  and  history, 
between  a  land  and  its  people,  between  physics  and  ethics,  if 
I  may  so  speak.  It  would  certainly  be  impossible  to  conceive 
of  the  development  of  such  a  history  as  that  of  Israel  taking 
place  anywhere  else  than  in  Palestine.  Nowhere  else  on  the 
earth  could  that  series  of  events,  and  that  peculiar  training 
which  the  people  of  God  had  to  pass  through,  have  found  a 
theater  so  conspicuous  to  the  eyes  of  all  the  world  as  that  nar- 
row land  of  Palestine. 

To  grasp  such  a  fact  as  this  in  its  more  general  relations, 
and  to  hold  it  up ;  to  make  every  man  understand  how  much  is 
involved  in  the  individuality  of  each  country,  in  what  is  pecu- 
liarly its  own  physical  features,  and  how  deep  and  wide  their 
influence  is  upon  man, — is  what  gives  to  the  science  of  geog- 
raphy its  dignity  and  worth.  And  it  would  be  well  deserving 
of  much  patient  research,  to  trace  the  conditions  and  the  laws 
which  gave  character  to  the  primitive  abode  of  the  Hebrews, 
and  to  show  how  Providence  led  them  up  the  steps,  cut  as  it 
were  in  the  rocks  of  their  own  soil,  to  the  "large  place"  for 
which  he  was  fitting  them ;  to  mdicate,  too,  the  gain  which  the 
children  of  Israel  found  in  their  newly  won  Canaan ;  to  show 
how  in  that  gain  all  races  of  men  ever  since  have  shared,  and 
how  the  peculiarities  of  the  physical  structure  of  Palestine  have 


GENERAL   SUPEKFICIALITY  OF  EXPLORATION.  537 

come  to  be  a  kind  of  possession,  so  t»  speak,  to  men  living  at 
the  very  ends  of  the  earth.  The  need  is  great  for  an  exliaust- 
ive  physical  geography  of  Palestine ;  and  yet  it  must  be  con- 
fessed none  has  yet  been  v^ritten,  despite  the  reports  of  thous- 
ands who  have  visited  the  Holy  Land,  and  given  us  their  oral 
or  their  printed  reports.  It  is  only  within  the  latest  years  that 
any  attempt  in  this  direction  has  been  made,  and  no  thorough 
results  have  yet  been  attained.  The  work  which  I  offer  must 
therefore  be  a  tentative  effort,  rather  than  such  a  perfect  work 
as  can  some  day  be  expected,  but  for  which  the  materials  are 
not  yet  ready. 

Whoever  is  denied  the  privilege  of  looking  upon  the  face 
of  a  country  which  becomes  the  subject  of  his  study,  and  which 
has  been  the  scene  of  great  historical  events,  will  find  that 
those  very  events,  viewed  in  a  true  historical  light,  reflect  as 
from  a  perfect  mirror  the  physical  characteristics  of  the  coun- 
try where  they  have  occurred,  and  from  which  their  influence 
has  gone  forth  to  other  parts  of  the  world.  To  stand  close  to 
the  subject  of  our  studies  is  not  always  best :  the  special  fea- 
tures are  brought  too  much  into  view  ;  and  the  mind  is  in  peril 
of  being  led  astray,  of  losing  the  unity  of  the  subject,  and  of 
being  engulfed  and  lost  in  a  whirl  of  details.  The  personal 
observations  of  tourists  are  not  therefore  always  pure  gold  to 
the  scientific  student,  because  very  few  tourists  have  the  acu- 
men needful  for  the  highest  purj)oses  of  travel.  The  facts 
which  observers  bring  back  must  be  subjected  to  the  crucible 
of  learning  and  thought  before  they  become  truly  valuable  ,* 
more  especially,  they  must  be  subjected  to  the  touchstone  of 
history,  and  then  their  worth  or  their  lack  of  worth  appears. 
Oftentimes  there  are  secrets  which  are  passed  over  in  a  hurried, 
superficial  way  for  hundreds  of  years,  before  the  man  comes 
who  can  bring  out  their  meaning,  and  set  them  in  a  clear, 
strong  light. 

That  this  has  been  the  case  with  Palestine,  admits  of  no 
question.  Of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  who  have  made  their 
pilgrimage  thither,  of  the  thousands  tvho  have  gone  for  the 


538  PALESTINE  A   LAND   SET   APART. 

purpose  of  thorough  observation  and  inquhy,  how  few  there 
are  who,  with  all  that  they  have  brought  away  for  themselves  ' 
have  added  anything  to  the  possessions  of  others,  have  aug- 
mented at  all  the  sum  of  human  knowledge  about  the  Holy 
Land !  A  man  can  not  stand  at  the  foot  of  a  very  lofty  object, 
and  distinctly  see  the  point  where  it  touches  the  clouds ;  and 
the  majority  of  those  pious  persons  who  visit  Palestine  are  so 
overcome  by  the  touching  associations  of  the  place,  that  they 
lose  their  cool  judgment,  cast  away  the  common  standards  by 
which  they  measure  the  objects  of  interest  in  less  hallowed 
spots,  and  give  us  little  which  in  a  scientific  point  is  valuable. 
One  who  stands  farther  away  may  be  better  able  to  discern  the 
summit,  than  one  who  stands  at  the  very  foot  of  a  mountain. 
On  the  wild  crags  of  Switzerland,  if  you  go  too  near,  you  are 
rewarded  only  by  the  view  of  an  inextricable  tangle  of  brusk 
and  confused  rocks ;  but  if  you  stand  at  a  distance,  you  can 
make  out  all  the  details,  and  have  before  you  the  unity  of  a 
single  combined  picture. 

It  is  not  otherwise  with  the  point  of  view  which  science  is 
compelled  to  take.  Yet  it  has  not  been  possible  at  all  times  for 
geographical  science  to  gain  such  a  point  of  view :  thousands 
of  preparatory  steps  have  sometimes  to  be  taken  before  it  is 
reached.  Only  by  a  very  gradual  transition  could  the  geog- 
raphy of  Palestine  be  brought  out  from  the  thick  clouds  of 
darkness  which  have  so  long  rested  upon  its  records  and  its 
sources  :  it  was  a  country  unknown  to  those  outside  of  it,  even 
in  the  remotest  periods  of  history  :  even  its  nearest  neighbors, 
even  the  most  accomplished  nations  of  antiquity,  knew  little 
or  nothing  about  it.  Palestine  was  from  the  very  outset  a 
land  set  apart,  as  Israel  was  a  people  set  apart ;  and  for  two 
thousand  years  it  remained  so.  No  great  highway  led  through 
it  from  nation  to  nation ;  all  went  by  it  over  the  roads  which 
skirted  it  without  traversing  it,  and  which  all  found  their  tjrpe 
in  the  sea-line  which  ran  from  the  harbors  of  the  ancient  Phoe- 
nician cities  to  Egypt,  along  a  shore  which  was  almost  devoid 
of  havens.     The  adoption  of  the  theocracy  of  Jehovah  pre- 


BOUNDARIES   OF   SYRIA.  539 

vented  all  the  other  nations  of  antiquity  from  forming  any  ties 
of  alliance  with  a  people  so  separated  from  them  by  geographi- 
cal conditions,  and  by  mercantile,  political,  and  religious  opin- 
ions :  the  theocratic  idea  formed  a  perfect  cordon  around  Ca- 
naan, and  effectually  separated  all  other  nations  from  the 
chosen  people  who  inhabited  it. 

Palestine,  considered  in  its  connection  with  the  whole  of 
Syria,  extends  from  the  Isthmus  of  Suez  and  the  Sinai  Penin- 
sula at  the  south,  northward  to  the  middle  terrace  land  of  the 
Euphrates,  where  that  river  breaks  madly  through  the  south- 
ern branch  of  the  Syrian  Taurus. 

Syria  is  bounded  by  a  great  sea  of  sand  on  the  east,  as  by  a 
great  sea  of  water  on  the  west :  it  is  separated,  therefore,  alike 
from  the  Orient  and  Occident,  and  set  in  a  place  of  isolation. 
Had  it  been  longer  than  it  is,  and  narrower  than  it  is,  it  must 
have  been  a  mere  link  between  the  Armenian  highlands  of  the 
Taurus  and  Egypt,  and  the  whole  course  of  its  history  must 
have  been  radically  different  from  what  it  has  been :  there 
must  have  been  a  free  flowing  in  of  the  comparatively  rude 
life  of  the  former,  and  with  this  a  ready  entrance  of  Egyptian 
culture,  both  of  which  would  have  met  and  coalesced  in  a  third 
and  new  type' of  civilization.  The  geographical  situation  and 
relations  of  Palestine  conditioned  its  history  from  the  very  first, 
and  appointed  it  to  be  a  bridge  arching  across  a  double  sea  of 
desert  sands,  and  of  waters  which  the  want  of  harbors  made 
useless  to  it :  it  connected  the  Euphrates  with  the  Nile,  that 
the  nation  which  God  had  selected  while  its  representative  was 
an  aged  Chaldee  chieftain  might  pass  safely  to  Egypt  and 
thence  back  to  the  place  which  He  had  appointed  for  its  pos^ 
session,  thenceforth  to  be  isolated  from  the  world,  and  uuim- 
periled  by  it.  No  other  country  of  the  ancient  world  lay  as 
Palestine,  the  southern  half  of  Syria,  did  in  this  regard :  the 
northern  portion,  Soristan,  was  far  less  advantageously  situ- 
ated ;  lying  on  the  great  highway  from  Babylon  and  the  Eu- 
phrates, it  was  early  made  a  prey  to  the  mighty  armies  of  the 
East.      Palestine  lay  in  the  same  pathway,  and  yet  she  was 


640         DIFFUSION   OF   THE   GOSPEL   FROM   PALESTINE. 

spared,  and  for  centuries  no  enemy  came  near  her.  Sur- 
rounded by  the  six  great  nations  of  antiquity,  the  splendor  of 
whose  culture  is  yet  a  marvel  to  the  world — the  Babylonians, 
the  Assyrians,  the  Medes,  the  Persians,  the  Phoenicians,  and 
the  Egyptians — and  kept  apart  from  them  all,  it  was  able  to 
develop  its  monotheistic  religion,  to  establish  its  own  special 
polity,  to  create  an  entirely  antagonistic  system  of  national 
economy,  and  to  arrive  at  perfect  independence.  There  was 
no  country  so  situated  in  relation  to  three  great  continents  and 
five  great  bodies  of  water ;  so  that  when  the  fulness  of  time  had 
come,  there  was  no  delay  in  sending  the  gospel  to  the  very  ends 
of  the  earth.  May  we  not  see  in  such  a  wonderful  display  of 
adaptive  conditions,  which  have  exerted  a  decisive  effect  on 
the  whole  course  of  history,  and  on  the  destinies  of  millions, 
more  than  the  work  of  a  mere  random  chance,  more  than  the 
arbitrary  upheaving  of  the  ground,  the  hollowing  out  of  val- 
leys and  gorges  at  another  place,  and  the  letting  in  the 
waters  of  the  ocean  to  form  an  arm  of  the  sea  at  still  another  ? 
When  we  arrive  at  a  point  of  view  where  we  command  at  a 
glance  the  whole  course  of  history,  and  see  great  causes  work 
out  great  effects — effects  which  work  as  broadly  as  they  work 
deeply — may  we  not  recognize  the  working  of  a  Divine  Mind 
above  it  all,  controlling  the  issue  as  well  as  forming  the  plan ; 
and  not  alone  in  the  past — having  done  all  His  task  and  rest- 
ing thereafter — but  still  carrying  on  His  work  and  perfecting 
it  ?  Is  it  possible  that  claims  can  be  made  in  the  name  of  sci- 
ence to  a  profound  study  of  the  earth,  when  its  very  organic 
character  is  overlooked,  when  it  is  supposed  to  be  a  dead,  in- 
ert mass,  and  when  it  is  compared  with  any  of  those  bodies 
which  we  call  inorganic,  and  which  we  invest  with  no  life  or 
being,  and  cast  out  from  the  list  of  organized  things?  In  a 
hundred  places,  which  have  exerted  an  evident  influence  on 
the  course  of  history,  a  deeper  study  can  detect  what  I  call 
the  earth-organism,  meaning  thereby  a  certain  subtle  but  real 
organic  power,  which  the  earth  puts  forth  and  gives  to  its  in- 
habitants, not  to  be  confounded,  however,  with  any  life  of  the 


Palestine's  relation  to  the  world.  541 

globe  which  pantheism  may  claim.  And  even  iu  those  places 
where  no  living  connection  is  yet  traceable  between  the  coun- 
try and  the  man,  where  the  earth  seems  all  thrown  in  hap- 
hazard forms, — sea,  and  gulf,  and  lake,  and  mountain,  and 
plain,  and  desert, — having  no  pre-arranged  harmony  of  design 
and  ultimate  end  as  a  home  for  man  and  as  a  field  for  history, 
it  will  be  found  in  the  end  tliat  even  there  God's  plans  were 
laid  and  His  work  was  in  execution  no  less  fully  and  mani- 
festly than  in  those  places  which  we  call  the  classic  ground 
of  history. 

Palestine's  peculiar  position  in  relation  to  the  rest  of  the 
world  was  very  early  apparent.  Surrounded  by  populous, 
wealthy,  and  powerful  nations,  it  and  its  capital  remained  in 
their  center  (see  Ezek.  xxxviii.  12,  in  umhilico  terrce,  accord- 
ing to  the  LXX.  quoted  in  Jerome),  but  untouched  by  their 
traffic,  and  made  inaccessible  by  desert  sands  and  by  seas, — 
kept  secure  by  crags,  and  gorges,  and  mountains, — a  country 
without  great  natural  charms,  without  wealth,  and  presenting 
few  inducements  to  the  rapacity  of  outlying  nations.  Thus  in 
a  truly  independent  way,  in  the  undisturbed  cultivation  of  its 
rough  and  hatd  but  richly  remunerative  soil,  and  unattracted 
to  foreign  fields  by  open  roadsteads  and  favoring  seas,  it  could 
develop  fully  the  old  patriarchal  system,  and  fulfil  the  whole 
expectations  concerning  the  people  Israel.  This  it  could  ac- 
complish by  reason  of  its  isolation,  the  faith  of  its  people 
being  kept  pure  from  the  superstitions  which  were  accepted 
by  the  surrounding  nations.  And  this  order  of  things  went  on 
for  century  after  century,  till  the  time  came  for  the  special 
mission  of  the  Hebrew  peopl«  to  terminate,  and  for  their  land 
to  become  the  temporal  home  of  a  single  nation,  but  the  spir- 
itual home  of  all.  When  the  fulfilling  of  the  law  had  come, 
and  the  outer  bounds  of  the  country  had  been  broken  through 
and  the  enemy  had  pressed  in,  the  roads  were  opened  at  once 
for  the  dissemination  of  the  gospel  all  over  the  world;  and 
the  very  destruction  of  the  Jewish  capital,  and  the  scattering 
of  that  nation,  which  occurred  simultaneously  with  the  ful- 


642  THE  THREE  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 

filling  of  the  law  in  the  coming  of  the  Saviour,  were  made 
means  to  the  same  wonderful  end. 

This  union  of  amazing  contrasts,  perfect  isolation  and  inde- 
pendence, with  the  ability  to  go  out  fi'om  this  isolation  and 
estabhsh  commercial  relations  with  all  the  greatest  nations  of 
antiquity — the  Arabians,  Indians,  and  Egyptians,  as  well  as 
with  Syrians,  Armenians,  Greeks,  and  Romans — is  the  most 
striking  feature  in  the  country  destined  to  be  the  scene  of  the 
history  of  the  chosen  people. 

It  is  also  an  observable  fact,  and  one  which,  even  if  it  does 
not  spring  from  the  same  physical  conditions,  is,  nevertheless, 
closely  connected  with  them,  that  the  three  great  religions 
which  emanated  from  that  part  of  the  earth — Judaism,  Chris- 
tianity, and  Islamism — ^have  proved  themselves  the  ones  for  the 
reception  of  which  men  generally  are  most  susceptible,  and 
which  have  the  greatest  possibility  of  endurance.  And  these 
religions  could  only  have  gone  out  with  the  success  which  they 
have  commanded,  from  a  central  region :  had  they  sprung  up 
in  a  country  on  one  side,  they  would  not  have  brought  the  dis- 
trict at  the  center  into  speedy  subjection.  Even  the  realm  of 
spiritual  ideas  is  subject,  therefore,  to  geographical  conditions ; 
but  it  is  none  the  less  a  free  realm  notwithstanding :  for  that 
law  of  the  Spirit,  i.  e.  of  God,  although  it  is  strong,  and  brings 
even  the  thoughts  of  men  into  subjection  to  it,  yet  rules  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  truest  and  most  certified  principles  of  hu- 
man liberty. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

COMPAEATIVE  SURVEY  OF  SYRIA— (Concluded.) 

The  Barriers  of  Palestine  Sharply  Defined — The  Country  Viewed  in  its  Living 
Relations  —  Direction  of  the  Mountain  Ranges — Their  Parallelism  —  The 
Desert  Plateau— Caravan  Routes — The  Sea-coast  of  Syria — Want  of  Good 
Harbors — Diversity  Between  Eastern  and  Western  Sides  of  Palestine — The 
Jordan  a  Unique  River — The  Coele-Syrian  Valley — The  Road  Lines  of  Pales- 
tine Run  North  and  South  —  The  Knotted  Masses  of  the  Lebanon  —  The 
Streams  of  Palestine — Small  BrOoks  of  the  South  of  Palestine — Difference 
Between  Phoenicia  and  Palestine — Resemblances  Between  Syria  and  Persia 
— Terrace-culture. 

JOOKING  now  at  Palestine  more  in  detail,  we  dis- 
cover that  its  barriers- are  very  sharply  defined  on 
the  west,  the  south,  and  the  east,  but  that  at  the 
north  it  stretches  away  into  Syria  without  a  specially  marked 
boundary  line.  Still,*sharp  mathematical  lines  are  to  be  found 
nowhere  in  a  scientific  use  of  geography :  it  is  connections 
rather  than  demarcations  with  which  we  have  to  do ;  depen- 
dence rather  than  independence ;  the  mutual  action  and  reac- 
tion of"  nations  upon  each  other,  rather  than  their  isolated 
development.  Just  as  little  as  any  one  limb  of  an  animal  or- 
ganism can  be  detached  from  the  living  whole  of  which  it  forms 
a  part,  and  studied  by  itself  and  independently  of  its  relations, 
can  any  part  of  the  world  be  viewed  by  itself,  and  be  exhaust- 
ively studied.  Tliis  has  been  too  much  the  case  with  the 
writers  of  our  ordinary  geographical  text-books ;  and  the  lands 
which  should  have  been  exhibited  in  their  living  relations, 
have  been  presented  as  mere  dead  masses  of  rock  and  soil. 
"We  see,  on  the  other  hand,  in  every  country,  only  a  limb  whose 
relations  to  the  organic  body  must  be  sedulously  traced,  and 


544  MOUNTAIN   RANGES   OF   SYRIA. 

whose  special  functions  can  not  be  understood  till  they  are 
studied,  not  in  the  imperfect  light  which  a  mere  fragment 
yields,  but  in  the  perfect  light  which  the  whole  throws  upon 
every  constituent  part. 

The  principal  character  of  Syria,  of  which  Palestine  forms 
only  the  south-western  portion,  is  determined  mainly  by  the 
direction  of  its  mountain  ranges  :  these,  whether,  assuming  the 
larger  form  or  the  smaller  one  of  broad-backed  hills,  traverse 
the  whole  country  in  northerly  and  southerly  lines.  The  Jor- 
dan and  the  Orontes  run  along  the  main  valleys  in  just  con- 
trary directions — the  former  towards  the  gi^eatest  southerly, 
and  the  latter  towards  the  greatest  northerly  depression. 
These  lines  serve  to  indicate  the  parallelism  which  obtains  be- 
tween the  mountain  ranges,  the  valleys,  and  the  coast  line  of 
Syria.  Three  different  kinds  of  territory  are  the  result — three 
meridianal  belts  traceable  all  the  way  from  the  sea-shore  to 
the  eastern  boundary. 

East  of  these  two  main  streams  lies  the  desert,  a  plateau 
ranging  from  1,200  to  2,000  feet  in  hight,  and  stretching  away 
eastward  in  unbroken  uniformity;  at  the  west  is  the  coast,  a 
belt  varying  in  breadth ;  and  between  the  two,  the  country 
proper,  a  broad  mountain  land,  in  elevation  ranging  from  a  very 
moderate  altitude  to  the  alpine  proportions  of  Hermon,  which 
towers  9,000  feet  above  the  sea. 

The  belt  which  runs  along  the  eastern  frontier  from  north 
to  south,  traversing  all  Syria  from  the  extreme  limits  of  the- 
Taurus  to  the  Sinai  desert,  is  not  remarkable  for  any  marked 
grandeur  ih  its  physical  features,  and  is  tolerably  uniform  in 
its  characteristics,  being  made  up  to  a  considerable  extent  of 
a  broad  plateau  of  steppe  land,  rock  and  sand  and  debris  be- 
ing freely  intermingled  in  its  formation,  and  forming  an  im- 
measurable succession  of  high  plains,  whose  effect  is  manifest 
in  the  course  of  the  Euphrates,  which  has  been  driven  to  the 
eastward  thereby,  and  removed  from  the  immediate  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  Dotted  only  sparsely  with 
places  of  fertility,  oasis-like,  it  has  always  been  the  home  of 


33 


546  CAIIAVAN   ROUTES. 

wild,  nomadic  Bedouin  races,  who,  like  Israel  in  its  shepherd 
days,  gain  their  subsistence  by  a  restless  wandering.  Ikying 
for  the  most  part  from  one  to  two  thousand  feet  above  the  sea, 
there  are  found  here,  in  addition  to  the  dry  crntinental  cli- 
mate of  the  neighboring  Heja,  a  bright  sky,  hot  summers,  severe 
winters,  and  cutting  winds,  especially  from  the  north-east. 
Dryness,  a  scanty  supply  of  trees  and  springs,  are  the  natural 
result  of  these  physical  conditions,  as  we  know  is  the  case 
along  the  whole  southern  frontier  of  Palestine.  Yet  there  are 
certain  portions  of  this  tract  which  are  very  much  favored  b}^ 
their  supply  of  water.  For  here  is  the  great  route  for  cara- 
vans on  their  way  from  the  Euphrates  to  AraWa,  passing  from 
Zeugma,  near  el-Bir  and  Rumkala,  southward  via  Aleppo, 
Damascus,  el-Belka,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Jordan  and  the 
Dead  Sea  to  Medina  and  Mecca.  All  along  the  wa}'  there  is 
a  succession  of  oases,  giving  ample  supplies  of  water  for  the 
needs  of  pilgrims,  not  lying  in  the  direct  line  of  travel,  how- 
ever, but  causing  it  to  turn  and  twist  so  as  to  embrace  in  its 
course  these  natural  halting-places.  The  pilgrimage  from 
Aleppo  to  Medina  usually  occupies  forty-eight  days,  of  which 
the  half  are  usually  consumed  in  Syria,  the  entire  distance 
being  what  is  embraced  between  31°  and  86|°  N.  lat.,  or 
about  364  miles.  If  we  trace  upon  the  map  the  chief  halting- 
places  of  these  pilgrims,  we  gain  the  clearest  possible  concep- 
tion of  their  route. 

From  the  Euphrates  the  caravans  require  two  days  to  bring 
them  to  Aleppo,  lying  1,200  feet  above  the  sea,  and  36°  12' 
N.  lat.;  thence  to  Homs  (Emesa),  on  el-Aasi  (the  Orontes), 
it  is  a  six  days'  march.  Thence  to  Damascus,  33°  32'  28"  N. 
lat.,  and  at  an  altitude  of  over  two  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea,  it  requires  four  days.  From  that  point  it  is  a  nine  days' 
march  to  Belka,  at  the  north-eastern  extremity  of  the  Dead 
Sea ;  and  the  last  stage  is  thence  to  the  Kalaat  el  Hassa  or  el 
Hossa,  near  Shehak,  31°  N.  lat.,  at  the  southern  extremit}^  of 
the  Dead  Sea.  From  that  point  the  route  lies  for  twenty-four 
days  through  Arabian  soil,  with  the  exception  of  the  first  three 


THE   MARITIME   BELT.  547 

or  four,  which  take  the  pilgrims  over  Kalaat,  Aeneze,  Maan, 
eastward  from  Petra  to  the  Syrian  Akaba,  lying  east  of  Jebal 
and  Jebel  Shera  (Seir),  through  the  intermediate  territory  of 
the  ancient  Syria  Sobal,  before  they  leave  the  country  at  the 
Akaba  esh  Shamie  or  el  Sham,  and,  crossing  the  rocky  bound- 
ary, fairly  enter  the  true  Heja. 

The  second  belt,  running  northward  and  southward — the 
maritime  one  at  the  west,  the  sea-coast  of  Syria — is  of  very 
moderate  breadth,  never  over  a  few  miles  wide,  and  often  re- 
duced to  a  mere  strip  along  the  shore  by  the  invasion  of  the 
rocky  hills ;  never  uniform  for  any  considerable  way,  but 
subject  to  great  diversities  of  form ;  extending  from  Gaza 
along  the  coast  of  Palestine,  embracing  Sephala  and  the  cel- 
ebrated plain  of  Sharon,  as  far  as  Carmel.  Up  to  that  point 
it  has  not  been  insignificant  in  its  breadth ;  but  after  leaving 
Carmel  it  begins  to  narrow,  sometimes  being  reduced  to  a 
mere  fringe  between-  the  rocky  precipices  and  the  sea,  as  we 
find  frequently  to  be  the  case  in  northern  Soristan. 

This  maritime  belt  has  therefore  a  certain  analogy  in  its 
formation  with  the  Arabian  Tehama;,  which  is  subject  in  a 
measure  to  African  influence,  although  it  skirts  the  shore  of 
the  Red  Sea.  Still,  as  a  western  appendage  of  the  Syrian 
mountain  range,  it  is  more  abundantly  watered,  and  is  more 
fertile ;  by  reason  of  its  more  northerly  situation,  it  is  less 
parched  by  the  sun ;  by  virtue  of  its  relation  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean, it  enjoys  mild,  moist  sea  Avinds,  and  a  denser  foliage 
in  consequence ;  and  from  the  great  mountain  chain  in  the 
background,  it  has  more  grateful  land  winds,  and  greater  di- 
versity in  the  seasons.  There  was,  besides,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  a  great  advantage  in  the  want  of  good  harbors,  in  the 
unbroken  sea-hne  which  served  as  a  direct  guide  to  coasters, 
but  which  offered  no  inducements  to  them  to  tarry.  This  fea- 
ture characterized  the  southern  third  of  the  entire  Syrian 
shore,  that  of  Palestine,  and  was  one  of  the  appointed  means 
of  keeping  the  people  of  that  land  true  to  their  destiny,  as  a 
people  "set  apart;"  while  the  middle  third,  that  which  be- 


548  THE  OEONTES   RIVER. 

• 

longed  to  Phoenicia,  was  abundantly  provided  not  only  with 
excellent  harbors,  but  with  large  rivers,  and  with  all  the  ap- 
pliances which  made  them  the  first  commercial  nation  of  the 
globe,  not  only  chronologically,  but  in  the  extent  of  their 
resources.  This  completed  the  contrast  between  the  Phoeni- 
cians and  Israel,  allowing  them  to  live  side  by  side,  and  yet 
in  perfect  amity. 

The  third  longitudinal  belt,  the  one  lying  intermediate  be- 
tween the  two  already  specified,  belongs  in  lilce  manner  to 
all  Syria,  but  is  so  variously  modified,  that  these  modifications 
must  have  exerted  a  very  powerful  influence  upon  the  charac- 
ter of  the  people  inhabiting  it.  What  a  marked  diversity 
between  the  eastern  and  the  western  sides ! — the  gradual  ter- 
race-like ascent  from  the  wooded  and  deeply  green  j)lains  by 
the  sea,  step  after  step  to  the  high,  rounded,  grassy  hill  pastures 
of  the  south,  or  to  the  steep,  rocky,  alpine  mountains  of  the 
center,  as  well  as  those  more  to  the  north ;  and,  on  the  con- 
trary, towards  the  desert  frontier  at  the  east,  the  abrupt  naked 
descent  into  the  long  valley  of  the  upper  Orontes,  and  the  yet 
more  wall-like  valley  of  the  Jordan,  scarcely  presenting  a  trace 
of  analogy  to  the  features  of  the  western  side  of  this  great 
mountain  belt.  The  northward  and  the  southward  flow  of 
these  two  rivers  is  not  more  in  contrast  in  respect  to  direc- 
tion, than  it  is  in  all  the  natural  types  which  are  found  there ; 
and  this  despite  the  fact  that  they  are  cradled  in  almost  the 
same  spring.  The  Orontes  is  not  a  marked  river  in  the  history 
of  the  human  race:  the  Jordan,  on  the  c  DUoTary,  more  favored 
by  nature  with  tributary  lakes,  and  with  richer  and  rarer  gifts, 
has  attained  to  a  remarkable  place  in  its  influence  on  the  des- 
tinies- of  man.  The  Jordan  is  the  leading  river  of  the  land. 
As  in  the  oriental  mode  of  speech  a  spring  is  called  the  "  eye  " 
of  the  landscape,  so  a  river  like  the  Jordan,  fed  by  many 
springs,  may  be  called  the  main  artery  of  the  land,  quickening 
all  life  wherever  it  runs,  giving  occupation  to  all  settlers  upon 
it,  and  controlling  even  the  movements  of  those  who  settle, 
by  directing  them  to  the  most  fruitful  fields,  and  influencing 


THE   JOKDAN   A   UNIQUE   RIVER.  549 

vitally  all  commerce  and  all  civilization.  Deriving  its  supplies 
of  water  from  the  snowy  summits  of  Hermon  and  Lebanon, 
fed  by  their  rains,  by  the  stores  which  pour  forth  from  the 
grottoes  and  caves,  and  which  are  augmented  by  the  lakes 
through  which  the  Jordan  flows,  it  is  perennial  in  its  influence ; 
and  when  all  the  other  adjacent  streams  of  the  country  are 
dry  and  valueless,  .the  sacred  stream  flows  on,  still  continuing 
its  bounty.  "With  perfect  naturalness,  therefore,  all  Palestine 
looks  up  to  those  beautiful  snow-crowned  heights,  whence  all 
the  blessings  of  the  land  flow  down  the  Jordan  vale ;  and 
ploughman  and  shepherd,  singer  and  prophet,  theology  and 
poetry,  catch  thence  their  fairest  symbols  and  their  aptest  sim- 
iles. The  depression  of  the  Jordan  Valley  is  the  most  signal 
feature  in  the  geography  of  Palestine,  and  confers  upon  the 
whole  country  what  is  most  eminently  characteristic  of  it. 
For  the  Jordan  is  a  rivet  wholly  unique :  there  is  no  other  like 
it  on  the  whole  face  of  the  earth ;  a  purely  inland  river,  hav- 
ing no  embouchure  at  the  sea,  and  closing  its  course  at  the  very 
deepest  part  of  the  Old  World,  and  far  below  the  level  of  the 
ocean,  running  parallel  with  the  neighboring  coast,  and  yet 
never  approaching  it  from  source  to  mouth.  Without  the  ad- 
jacent«ea  this  river  could  not  have  an  existence :  it  as  well  as 
the  Orontes  would  totally  disappear ;  and  the  two  valleys  com- 
bined, with  the  exception  of  that  formed  by  the  lower  Oron- 
tes after  it  turns  abruptly  towards  the  sea  at  Antioch,  would 
constitute  one  unbroken  cleft  from  the  far  north  of  Syria  to 
the  Red  Sea  itself.  But  now  the  Jordan,  gathering  its  waters 
from  snowy  mountain-tops,  and  from  permanent  subterranean 
enclosures,  flows  over  a  succession  of  gradual  terraces  which 
are  only  partially  arid,  and  through  a  succession  of  lake  ba- 
sins broken  through  and  hollowed  out  of  the  solid  rock :  no- 
where a  true  river  system,  but  of  very  heterogeneous  character ; 
having  no  tributary  streams,  but  rolling  rapidly  here  and 
quickly  there,  traversing  a  mere  cleft  riven  through  the  whole 
length  of  Palestine. 

The  long  mountain  range  running  from  north  to  south,  and 


550  THE  JORDAN   VALLEY. 

whose  eastern  base  is  washed  by  the  rivers  just  mentioned, 
consists  of  a  number  of  parallel  ridges  of  peaks  with  their 
adjacent  spurs,  containing  some  lofty  summits  and  some  high 
rocky  swells,  with  valleys  lying  between,  all  of  which  are  at  a 
considerable  elevation  above  the  sea ;  the  Val  Bekaa,  in  which 
Baalbc'c  is  situated,  between  Lebanon  and  Anti-Lebanon,  be- 
ing 3,000  feet  above  the  ocean  level.  There  is  no  great  val- 
leycrossing  these  ridges  eastwaixl  and  westward:  for  had  there 
been,  the  Jordan  would  not  have  lost  itself  in  a  small  hilund 
sea,  but  would  have  broken  through  to  the  Mediterranean,  just 
as  the  Orontes  once  apparently  did  at  the  Mons  Casius  of  the 
ancients,  where  it  takes  a  sharp  western  turn  towards  the  sea. 
The  great  plateau  east  of  the  Jordan  Valley  was  purposely 
intended  to  sink  at  the  north,  and  the  mountain  ranges  west  of 
the  Orontes  also,  preparatory  to  their  rising  again  in  the  great 
Aman  and  Taurus  chains,  in  order  to  effect  the  complete  isola- 
tion of  northern  Soristan,  and  to  allow  a  free  passage  for  all 
the  nations  of  Hither  Asia  to  go  from  the  Euphrates  to  the 
Mediterranean.  Had  there  been  a  transverse  valley  across 
Palestine,  it  would  have  been  turned  to  large  account  for  this 
purpose,  and  the  whole  history  of  the  country  would  have 
been  different  from  what  it  has  been.  ^ 

And  not  only  is  there  wanting  a  deep  central  valley  from 
the  east  to  the  west  of  Palestine,  but  there  are  also  wanting 
any  that  lie  high,  any  which  may  serve  approximately  for  the 
purposes  of  travel  or  traffic.  All  the  lines  run  from  north  to 
south,  and  there  are  almost  no  clefts  which  allow  free  passage 
between  these  lateral  lines :  the  few  insignificant  ones  which 
do  thus  bridge  the  hill  and  mountain  chains  have  been  con- 
verted into  places  of  great  local  importance.  In  the  middle 
third  of  Syria  (reckoning  Palestine  as  the  southern),  the  Leba- 
non range  has  proved  an  equally  effectual  barrier:  it  has  but 
a  single  pass  from  Damascus  to  the  Mediterranean ;  and  the 
people  of  the  whole  region  have  made  little  progress,  and  trans- 
mit faithfully  from  generation  to  generation  the  modes  and 
customs  and  opinions  of  their  remote  ancestors.    The  towering 


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552  THE   KNOTTED    MASSES    OF   THE    LEBANON. 

mountains,  with  their  difficult  passes,  so  limited  the  pos.sibili- 
ties  of  civilization  there,  that  it  was  nearly  all  centered  in 
Damascus  at  the  east,  and  in  the  Phoenician  cities  on  the  sea- 
board ;  while  on,  the  rolling  and  more  open  and  accessible  hills 
of  Palestine,  men  could  labor  more  easily,  and  communicate 
with  each  other  more  readily ;  and  the  result  was  the  l)uilding 
of  the  numerous  cities  of  the  south — Hebron,  Sichem,  Sama- 
ria, Jerusalem,  Nazareth,  Safed,  and  others.  Middle  Syria 
can  show  no  parallel  to  this  ;  as  little  can  northern  Syria ;  and 
the  civilization  of  those  regions  was  compelled  to  center  at 
Damascus,  Aleppo  and  Hainath,  in  consequence  of  their  rela- 
tion to  the  Euphrates. 

Although  in  the  physical  configuration  of  Syria,  as  I  have 
thus  far  pictured  it,  a  great  share  of  the  phenomena  with 
which  history  has  to  deal  may  find  its  key,  still  there  are  other 
conditions,  of  which  I  must  si3eak,  which  have  also  exerted  a 
large  influence.  They  are  hyjDsometrical  in  their  character : 
they  deal  with  lines  which  do  not  run  northward  and  south- 
ward, like  those  already  studied,  but  eastward  and  westward, 
and  which  determine  much  of  the  hydrography  of  Syria. 

I  allude  to  the  colossal  piling  up  within  the  middle  third  of 
the  country,  of  the  knotted  masses  which  compose  the  Leba- 
non. The  first  result  of  this  feature  is  the  contrasted  and 
divergent  valleys  of  the  Orontes  and  of  the  Jordan,  each*  of 
them  from  sixty  to  seventy  hours  long  (adopting  the  oriental 
method  of  measuring  such  distances)  ;  and  the  next  is  the  for- 
mation of  those  abundant  Phoenician  streams  which  flow  into 
the  Mediterranean,  as  well  as  those  which  water  the  plateau 
of  Damascus.  Between  the  head  waters  of  the  two  great 
Syrian  rivers  tower  the  two  parallel  ranges  of  the  Lebanon 
(33°  to  34|-°  N.  lat.),  dominating  over  all  the  landscape, 
branching  out  in  all  directions,  and  rising  in  some  of  their 
peaks  to  the  height  of  9,000  feet.  Among  these  colossal 
mountains  we  are  not  restricted  longer  to  the  mere  valleys 
which  run  north  and  south,  such  as  we  have  only  found  else- 
where ;  but  here  are  transverse  ravines  as  well,  through  which 


thp:  streams  of  Palestine.  553 

the  abundant  waters  of  Lebanon  flow  out  in  all  direc- 
tions. Thus  the  Barada,  which  with  its  tributaries  flows 
directly  from  the  heights  of  Anti-Lebanon  to  the  plateau  at 
the  eastern  base,  gives  to  Damascus  its  beautiful  girdle  of 
gardens,  and  then,  having  no  outlet  to  the  Mediterra- 
nean, disappears  in  the  Bahr  el  Merdj,  like  the  Jordan  in  the 
Dead  Sea. 

On  the  western  declivities  there  are  many  deep  cross  val- 
leys also  breaking  through,  beginning  at  Nahr  Kasmieh  (the 
Leontes)  at  the  south,  coming  up  by  Sur  (Tyre),  parting  the 
knotted  group  of  the  Lebanon,  and  allowing  for  a  great  part 
of  the  year  the  free  passage  of  the  perennial  mountain  streams 
which  dash  grandly  down,  and  enter  the  sea  upon  the  Phoeni- 
cian coast ;  a  coast  so  richly  supplied  with  harbors,  and  so 
favored  with  the  abundant  irrigation  of  these  numerous 
streams,  and  so  securely  protected  from  invasion  on  the  land 
side  by  the  wild  masses  of  ro<ik  which  advance  almost  to  the 
sea-side,  and  so  favored  by  winds  and  currents  and  all  the  ac- 
cessories of  navigation,  that  from  the  earliest  times  every 
natural  haven  has  witnessed  the  growth  of  a  city  upon  it ;  and 
from  that  coast  men  were  attracted  in  the  very  infancy  of  the 
world  to  push  out  and  explore  other  regions,  and  build  up  a 
commerce  with  other  and  ruder  nations. 
.  What  a  contrast  this  presents  to  the  lower  coast  of  Syria, 
where  there  is  to  be  found  scarcely  a  single  mountain  stream, 
scarcely  a  brook  even,  and  hardly  a  single  harbor ;  with  al- 
most the  single  exception  of  the  Kishon  (KeisCm),  north  of 
Mount  Carmel,  embouching  in  the  Bay  of  Acre !  Not  in  the 
magnitude  of  the  streams  of  Palestine  lies  their  importance, 
for  they  are  all  very  small,  none  of  them  longer  than  men 
march  in  two  or  three  days  ;  not  in  their  navigability,  for  they 
are  all  inaccessible  to  even  the  lighter  kinds  of  shipping ;  but 
in  their  terrace-formed  valleys,  and  in  the  deltas  and  the  pe- 
culiar line  of  plains  along  the  shore  to  which  their  dashing 
waters,  carrying  down  the  finely  crumbled  detritus  of  the  hills, 
give  rise.     There  was  no  lack  of  fertile  plains  along  the  sea- 


554  THE   LEBANON    CHAIN. 

board  of  Palestine,  and  hence  the  industry  of  the  early  in- 
habitants won  for  it  the  fame  of  being  a  land  flowing  with  oil, 
milk,  and  honey ;  and  the  Canaanitic  agriculture,  which  con- 
verted the  terraces  on  every  hill-side  into  smiling  gardens,  was 
cited  as  the  model  of  the  whole  Levant  and  southern  Europe. 
The  great  difference  between  Phoenicia  and  Palestine  was  this, 
that  the  latter  country  retained  within  itself  all  the  profitable 
land  which  its  river-courses  formed,  and  was  able  to  avail  itself 
of  it.  But  the  former  country  lost  it  in  great  measure ;  the 
dashing  mountain  streams  swept  the  fine  particles  of  alluvium 
out  to  sea,  and  allowed  the  formation  of  no  rich  plains  along 
the  coast.  This  also  tended  to  drive  the  people  to  the  pur- 
suits of  navigation  and  commerce. 

This  great  mountain  chain  of  Lebanon,  then,  struggling 
upwards  towards  the  line  of  perpetual  snow,  but  hardly  any- 
where reaching  it,  yet  gathering  each  winter  enough  of  snow 
and  ice  to  serve  as  a  sufficient  supply  for  the  summer  to  come, 
is  what  proves  so  rich  and  fruitful  a  blessing  to  southern  and 
central  Syria.  Its  loftiest  summits  are  found,  too,  at  the 
southern  extremity  of  the  chain ;  and  this  especially  favors 
Palestine.  The  countries  which  cluster  around  the  base  of 
Lebanon  are  supplied  with  constant  moisture,  while  those  at  a 
distance  from  it,  the  great  Syrian  plains,  are  scantily  watered. 
The  Holy  Land  may  be  considered  as  a  great  oasis  in  the 
desert.  The  entire  domain  of  Egypt,  Arabia,  and  Assyria  is 
only  scantily  dotted  with  patches  of  verdure,  or  lined  with  it 
along  the  rivers'  sides ;  but  the  Lebanon  once  blessed  all  Pal-' 
estine,  and  covered  it  with  streams. 

Syria  is  divided,  as  we  now  see,  not  only  into  the  three  long 
belts  which  follow  the  direction  of  the  meridian,  the  eastern 
or  continental,  the  western  or  maritime,  and  the  central  or 
the  mountainous,  but  it  is  also  subdivided  into  southern, 
central,  and  northern  Syria  by  other  characteristics.  The 
central  portion  is  the  province  covered  by  the  Lebanon,  which 
separates  as  a  mighty  barrier  the  northern  from  the  southern, 
and  whose  branches  are  so  far  inferior  to  it  in  size,  that  they 


PECULIAllITY   OF    SYKIA.  555 

can  lay  ntD  claim  to  analogy  in  respect  of  altitude,  but  merely 
in   respect  of  general  configuration  and  physical  character. 

Without  the  Lebanon,  Syria  would  not  have  differed  essen- 
tially from  Persia  or  Arabia,  and  would  have  been  utterly 
unable  to  play  that  part  in  history  which  has  been  accorded  to 
her.  But  with  the  towering  Lebanon  to  yield  supplies  of 
moisture,  Damascus  could  become  not  merely  the  delightful 
city  of  gardens  which  she  has  alwaj's  been,  but  one  of  the 
most  ancient  homes  of  culture  on  the  earth.  The  deeply  in- 
dented shore  on  the  west,  with  its  rivers,  and  the  harbors  which 
■were  formed  at  their  rocky  mouths,  could  become  the  home  of 
a  great  commercial  people,  and  an  outlet  for  all  the  products 
of  the  busy  East.  The  northern  portion,  Soristan,  the  coun- 
try which  served  as  the  track  of  travelers  on  their  way  from 
the  most  western  bending  of  the  Euphrates  to  the  turning  of 
the  Orontes  at  Antioch,  was  the  most  meagrely  supplied  of  all, 
and  yet  it  was  not  unsupplied  with  the  waters  of  the  Leba- 
non ;  while  the  southern  third,  Canaan,  the  later  Palestine, 
was  richly  watered  from  Hermon  down — was  kept  fruitful  by 
the  influence  of  its  leading  river — was  made  conscious  of  its 
own  wealth,  its  own  independence  of  the  rest  of  the  world, 
its  own  security ;  and  so  cherishing,  its  own  resources,  and 
adding  to  them,  it  went  on  in  its  chosen  path  of  inward 
growth,  without  foreign  wars,  and  without  any  contact  with 
the  world  without,  until  at  last  the  time  arrived  when  it  too 
was  made  a  prey,  and  was  tossed  up  and  down  in  the  flooding 
and  ebbing  of  battle.  But  that  this  could  happen  at  all  was 
indicated  by  the  physical  structure  of  the  country,  and  by  the 
manner  of  its  connection  through  Coelo-Syria  with  Soristan. 
And  yet  despite  this,  and  despite  all  the  analogies  which  bind 
the  southern  third  of  the  country  to  the  northern  third,  there 
is  enough  left  to  bring  Palestine  out  into  amazing  prominence 
as  a  country  providentially  appointed  as  the  home  of  a  peo- 
ple who  were  to  be  "set  apart." 

Both  the  northern  and  the  southern  sections  of  Palestine 
are  effectually  shut  off  from  the  central  or  the  Lebanon  j)rov- 


666  PALESTINE   AND   SYRIA. 

ince ;  Palestine  proper,  or  the  land  of  the  Jordan,  is  essen- 
tially divorced  from  Soristan,  or  the  laud  of  the  Orontes. 
The  latter  river  rises  in  the  high  Lebanon  range,  but  it  very- 
soon  leaves  it,  or  flows  as  a  mere  neighbor  to  its  eastern  base, 
the  river  being  skirted  on  the  east  by  the  vast  Syrian  plateau. 
The  Jordan,  on  the  contrary,  plunges  down  at  once  into  a 
deep  ravine,  in  which  lies  its  entire  course  thereafter,  its 
eastern  margin  not  being  a  vast  plateau,  but  a  towering  wall 
of  rock,  precipice-like,  sometimes  rising  to  the  height  of  thou- 
sands of  feet,  and  running  back  from  the  river  in  the  form 
of  cool,  breezy  plains,  not  destitute  of  pasturage.  This  dif- 
ference in  the  configuration  of  the  two  river  basins  made  a 
great  change  in  their  historical  influence ;  for  whereas  the 
Orontes,  open  on  the  east  to  the  free  advance  of  the  wandering 
races  who  came  westward  from  Hither  Asia,  presented  no 
obstacle,  the  Jordan  was  effectually  closed,  and  the  hordes  of 
the  Heja  menaced  it  in  vain.  The  destinies  of  Soristan  were 
consequently  most  intimately  connected  with  those  of  Ass3rria 
and  Mesopotamia:  the  basin  of  the  lower  Orontes  was  a 
highway  for  nations — a  great  channel  for  commerce,  as  the 
history  of  Tadmor,  Palmyra,  Antioch,  and  Aleppo  shows — a 
connecting  link  between  the  East  and  the  West,  between  the 
Euphrates  and  Asia  Minor.  Assyrians,  Persians,  Parthians, 
Romans,  Greeks,  Seleucidians,  Saffanidians,  Mongolians,  and 
Turks,  pressed  into  the  land,  and  at  present  the  Turcomans 
hold  undisputed  possession  of  it :  wave  after  wave  swept  those 
away  who  had  for  a  little  season  possessed  it,  and  there  was 
never  time  when  any  nation  could  abide  there  long  enough  to 
form  a  history.  But  at  the  south,  and  along  the  Jordan  Valley, 
there  never  was  any  commingling  of  races ;  the  barrier  was 
effectual,  and  checked  all  invasion  until  that  of  the  Moham- 
medans. The  traffic  of  the  Israelites  under  Solomon,  in  the 
Nabathsean  period,  as  well  as  that  of  the  patriarchs  with  Egj^pt, 
was  not  effected  through  the  channel  by  which  Joshua  entered 
the  land,  but  by  traversing  the  Sinaitic  desert.  More  tempo- 
rary yet  were  the  transits  across  the  land  of  one  of  the  Pha- 


TERRACE-CULTURE.  557 

raohs,  Alexander,  and  the  Seleucidse;  while  the  Roman  and 
Byzantine  power  found  their  limit  outside  of  Palestine. 

The  greater  abundance  of  springs,  brooks,  rivers,  and  lakes, 
must  also  be  taken  into  account,  as  adding  very  much  to  the 
value  of  Palestine  as  the  permanent  home  of  a  nation ;  for  the 
great  lake  (Famieh  or  Bohaire),  found  on  some  modern  maps, 
between  Hama  and  Antioch,  and  near  Apomea,  must  be  struck 
out,  being  placed  there  only  by  hypothesis,  to  preserve  a  sup- 
posed analogy  between  that  district  and  that  at  the  south. 

A  third  difference  lies  in  the  method  and  skill  in  agricul- 
ture among  the  Hebrews,  who  followed  what  I  have  indi- 
cated by  the  expression  terrace-culture, — a  method  still  in 
vogue  on  the  Phoenician  hills.  What  was  not  found  in  any 
one  of  the  three  divisions  of  Syria,  were  those  broad  fertile 
plains,  the  existence  of  which  is  essential  to  the  existence  of 
any  extremely  populous  country.  This  want,  Phcenicia  could 
supply  by  means  of  its  large  foreign  commerce,  which  made 
the  then  known  world  a  granary  ;  but  Palestine  and  Soristan 
could  not  supply  it.  Both  of  these  districts  were  removed 
respectively  but  a  few  days'  march  over  the  desert,  from  two 
countries  which  could  furnish  them  with  com  in  times  of  great 
scarcity;  Mesopotamia  to  the  latter,  Egypt  to  the  former. 
What  an  influence  such  a  dependence  gave  to  those  great  cen- 
ters of  civilization,  is  well  known :  it  conferred  upon  them 
their  empire  as  well  as  their  culture,  and  caused  all  power, 
and  wisdom,  and  luxury  to  be  briefly  summed  up,  when  men 
pronounced  the  names  of  Memphis  and  Babylon. 


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